Finding a place
by Henordra
Summary: 11th/Master. The Master escapes the Time Lock and goes hunting for the TARDIS but without the drums he's a different man than he used to be.
1. Chapter 1

Master's POV

I like plans; properly detailed ones.

But...

This plan started life as surviving after killing Rassilon. Not really a plan so much.

Anyway.

Escaping the Time Lock.

That's what the other Time Lords try to put me to.

They even take my drums to make me more manageable. It only makes me more patient.

Twenty-five personal stream years later and I'm at the time Rassilon punched out. Simplicity itself to follow the call of my own mind.

I have stolen a vortex manipulator which I have pre-programmed to the co-ordinates of the Shadow Proclamation in 60140515; it's always good to have a full set of co-ordinates memorised in case of emergencies. I'll get though quickly, as it's only me, and I can get away to avoid being pulled back.

It's good to be _brilliant_. All the work distracts from the silence of my mind without the drums. Otherwise I have to concentrate very hard on my own hearts beating to keep from panicking.

I escape the Time Lock into orbit around Earth. I spare it a scowl as I activate the manipulator.

Nothing happens.

I hit the button again. I hold my breath, briefly pondering how long I can survive in a vacuum and how long I have before I get pulled back into the Time Lock. I pull my laser screwdriver from my hoodie.

Just a loose connection from the transit back into the normal flow of time.

I jump away before the Doctor shoots passed me to the machine far below; sending me with Rassilon and everyone else back into the Time Lock.

I take a reassuring gulp of breath as I appear intact in a deserted corridor of the Shadow Proclamation. The alarm begins to sound immediately so I move quickly to console nearby. A quick hack later and I have calibrated the vortex manipulator. The only remaining part of my plan is to get myself to the one remaining TARDIS in the Universe.

Wait.

I can sense another Time Lord. It feels similar to the Doctor, but it isn't him. A relation? He's actually gone so far as to breed with one of his precious apes?!

I feel a little revolted.

But it doesn't feel like a half-breed, I don't know how he managed that. Gene manipulation I suppose. It is probably in contact with the Doctor anyway, and so the TARDIS...

My cautious mental greeting goes unacknowledged. No adult Time Lord would ignore such a greeting; there are perhaps three of us left. So it's probably a hybrid or a child.

The Doctor I know, and we do know each other very well, would not leave an untrained child alone. He doesn't like to leave any of the things he grows attached to behind.

He might have completely failed at all mental education, of course. Depending how long it has been for him he may have abandoned some of our species' abilities. There is little point, after all, in being able to recognise members of your species from a galaxy away if you are the only one left.

I shiver and mentally shy away from the silence in my mind. Loosing the drums is all the more obvious to me now there is now background hum from the other Time Lords.

I take a deep breath and remember the alarm is sounding and I really should be leaving. I'll adapt my plan; previously I was going to head to Earth and enjoy myself until the Doctor turned up, but with this new element the potential for manipulation is greater and beckons to me; I'll pick them up on the way.

I jump away just a Judoon squad bursts into the corridor, weapons drawn.


	2. Chapter 2

My fourth jump with the vortex manipulator gets me to the correct planet, after homing in with the previous three, and the fifth brings me within a mile.

I appear in the middle of a crowd of rioting… squid? Just the sort of place I'd expect to find the Doctor.

But the individual definitely isn't him. It doesn't feel familiar, other than having echoes of him, and feels like it's probably very young.

I would generally ignore the natives of a pre-space faring race, except Earth of course, but these ones are definitely screaming in panic about something. I gather they are expecting some sort of cataclysmic explosion.

Time to get out of here then; I run toward the Time Lord presence.

My hearts beat loudly in my ears as I run and the adrenaline kicks in; it's so overwhelmingly comforting that I start to giggle in glee. I grin wildly as I crash though some doors into a building and race down a pale blue corridor towards the non-Doctor. I go though another door and into a laboratory in chaos; many squid are yelling instructions to each other and one blonde female Time Lord is shouting over the lot of them.

A clone! Of course! There was no way the Doctor would let any true child of his out of his sight, especially as young as she seems to me. Though, now I think about it, he's such an insufferable idiot I'm surprised even a clone is immune to his hovering. Perhaps the DNA was stolen somehow and the Doctor is unaware of her...

The clone has looked up at my entrance and grins widely despite the panic surrounding us. Very _Doctor._

'Hi, I'm Jenny,' she says in some obscure human dialect that's presumably from this era. She's wearing loose green trousers with lots of pockets, a tight grey t-shirt and a pair of worn sand-coloured walking boots.

'The Master,' I tell her in Gallifreyan; a bit of a test.

She just keeps grinning, clearly not understanding at all. I roll my eyes and swap to her human language,

'I'm the Master,' I repeat, 'and I know your donor.'

'You know my father?! I've been looking for him!' she rushes over and reaches to touch me.

'Yes, well,' I jerk backward. 'I know where to find him.'

'OK!' she beams. 'I just need to help these guys with their reactor.'

She spins on her heel and returns to the control panel she had abandoned. There are a lot of error messages, warning lights and alarms it's amusing to see where she'll start.

I step up behind her to observe and assess the problem. She is fixing it, but in what is probably the slowest most round-about way possible.

I watch for a minute, out of habit, for the drums to kick in and demand my obedience to chaos, but they don't come. I repress a shiver of distress. I _don't_ want to be their slave anymore but they've been such a constant for so long…

I'm getting fed-up and mildly worried for my regeneration so I push her out of the way,

'What are you doing?' I get my hands on the controls. 'Do you have any knowledge of thermal dynamics at all?'

The clone begins to give me a long winded, rambling explanation for her ignorance and why she still felt she could help but I ignore her in favour of saving our lives. When the first of the alarms stops sounding my work attracts the attention of some of the squid. When I finally have everything under control and shutting down the calamari are all gazing at me adoringly with their giant eyes.

I step back from the control panel and they begin to grovel their thanks to me. They paw at my trousers with their fore-tentacles as they praise me and offer all manner of rewards.

'How did you do that?' the clone gazes at me in awe.

If this is the response the Doctor gets every time I could almost get onboard with saving these stunted lower races.

'The fuel mixture was off; I compensated with cooling rods and controlled venting,' I tell her as I fend off the over-friendly squid from touching more than just my legs. 'Their reactor is bizarrely designed but it should work if they adjust their ratios and monitor them more closely.'

I swap languages and speak directly with the squid,

'If you are going to use these fuels you want a ratio of 23:45:17, but you'll get better returns if you purify the second and correct your quantities accordingly.'

I spend the next thirty minutes or so explaining how to properly maintain a reactor of this size and the possible fuel improvements they could make. I am showing off a little; the clone is hanging off of my every word. She is a Time Lord with an almost empty mind; a true anomaly.

She follows me when I finally escape back to the street.

'Does he know about you?' I ask.

'He did,' she nods. 'I was created from him for a war on Messaline. His friend Donna named me,' her smile falters, 'then I died and he left. But I came back… I stole a shuttle and went looking for him.'

'You regenerated with a prolonged delay? Did your appearance change?' I have a bad feeling about this.

'Regenerated? Why would my appearance change?'

I stop walking,

'Regeneration is what we do to avoid dying, but we have to change to achieve it.'

'So you're a Time Lord too?' she exclaims.

I stare at her and cannot speak for a moment,

'You can't tell? Did he teach you nothing?!' I exclaim.

'I only knew him for half a day,' she snaps at me, 'and we were busy saving everyone!'

'That doesn't surprise me,' I mutter.

'Are you even his friend?' she demands. 'Where is my father?'

I force a smirk,

'He thinks I'm _brilliant_; my very existence brings him joy.'

She doesn't look convinced.

'I have a vortex manipulator,' I tell her. 'If I have a communication devise capable of signalling the TARDIS then we can go to Earth and signal him from there.'

'Why Earth?'

Because the thought of me on his precious Earth will speed up his response time.

'Because Earth is his favourite,' I tell her truthfully. 'You have a ship?'

'It will be great to see Donna again too,' she tells me as she leads the way. 'And Martha.'

'In my time-line he hasn't travelled with Martha for years and Donna is a poorly controlled meta-crisis waiting to happen,' I tell her.

'A meta-crisis?'

'She has a repressed Time Lord brain hidden in her subconscious that, if it becomes active, will burn her mind.'

'Can't you fix her?'

I consider it as a potential future bargaining tool… With the Doctor's help I could probably make a better job of repressing the Time Lord knowledge but more than that would likely be impossible without erasing her own mind too. The Doctor would not approve.

'No,' I tell her.

'Oh,' she falls silent for the rest of the walk.


	3. Chapter 3

Doctor's POV

I jolt awake as the TARDIS takes off and goes spinning though the Vortex. I jolt up and rush to get dressed to be in the control room for when she's locked onto whatever it is she wants.

'Where are we girl?' I look over the sensors; we're at the Shadow Proclamation. 'They don't like us parking here. Did someone call?'

I jump down the stars and out the door to have a look around, and probably talk my way out of my parking tickets. Again.

I crash directly into the Master. The only other Time Lord in existence. Who is supposed to be in the Time Lock.

My mind short-circuits over these points and I just stare at him.

'Three days later? Doctor, I only wanted to stretch my legs out of the TARDIS, maybe get a drink… You really need to learn to fly,' he scoffs at me and pushes past me into the TARDIS.

I catch his arm purely by reflex and spin him back to face me,

'You're alive!' I tell him, rather pointlessly.

'What?'

'…!' I just stare at him, checking his face for deception.

'Ah, we're crossed timelines. Magnificent.'

I'm clutching the front of his hoodie with both hands though I don't remember moving to do so.

The Master slowly reaches out his hand and threads his fingers into the hair on the back of my head. He's watching my reaction closely and he tugs me gently and rests our foreheads together. I'm shaking.

'Shh, Doctor,' he actually sounds soothing. 'Breathe please, before one of your hearts stops.'

'You're alive…' I gulp in an obedient breath then close my eyes. I'm not alone. The only other member of my species may be deranged, psychotic and intent on taking over the Universe but at least I'm not alone. Also he doesn't currently seem to be doing anything other than almost hugging me.

'This goes a long way toward explaining my reception when I first saw you, by the way,' he tells me quietly. Just hearing Gallifreyan spoken aloud again is comforting.

'How long have you been back?' using Gallifreyan myself makes it much easier to make it clear I mean his personal timeline rather than mine.

'A year,' he tells me, 'but we should really cover this in the correct order.' In Gallifreyan 'correct order' implies a potential taboo.

'I'll just go looking for you now, it barely makes any difference,' I object as I tighten my hold on his hoodie but pull back a little to look into his eyes.

He smiles gently, an expression I haven't seen on any of his faces for a very long time,

'Doctor, that contained a very large dose of _please don't leave me_,' he pulls a little further back from me. 'You just said yourself that we'll meet properly within the hour if you put your mind to it.'

Despite his words he puts his hands over mine and tows me over to sit on the steps that lead to the TARDIS console.

'It's very quiet with everyone gone,' I explain and allow him to prise my hands from him.

'Everyone,' he murmurs, staring at my hands which he's now holding between his own, 'the only Time Lord in existence for… 300 years?'

'Give or take,' I blink back the sudden threat of tears.

The Master hums and brushes away the one tear that did escape,

'The last time you saw me I was trying to take over the Earth, why are you happy to see me?'

'That was over a hundred years ago, and actually the last time I saw you , you were giving your life to seal Rassilon back into the Time Lock,' I manage to grin at him. 'Besides, I always forgive you. Always.'

He grins back,

'You're such a sap. But you've hardly been alone, you have all your chimps,' the grin becomes a smirk, 'and there's always River.'

I smile,

'Humans are amazing. You've never given them enough credit.'

'And you give them too much,' he retorts and stands up, releasing my hands after squeezing them briefly.

'And River,' I pause. 'The first time I met River she died. That puts a damper on any future dealings really.'

'Meeting in the wrong order is inconvenient,' he smiles mockingly. 'You and she seem to be particularly adept at doing so.'

'And she's not a real Time Lord; she feels human.'

'Whatever you say,' he shrugs. 'Now, you go and find me. I'll wait here to give you a slap.'

'Deal,' I hold out my hand and he pulls me to my feet. 'I'll see you.'

'Don't let me be too harsh on you,' the Master nods to me and exits the TARDIS.


	4. Chapter 4

Master's POV

We walk across the field to where she's landed her shuttle.

'We need to go to Earth,' I tell her again. 'So we'll use the vortex manipulator for that, and to get a time frame I'm familiar with. The communication panel in your ship has a beacon which I can use to signal the TARDIS; they'll know it's me.'

I step into the cockpit and locate the correct panel to pull out.

'Earth!' the clone smiles. 'How does the vortex manipulator work?'

I glance up from the innards of her communication panel. I guess someone is going to have to take responsibility for her education…

'I'll let you take it apart when we get to Earth.'

'You're so awesome,' she beams at me.

That throws me and I stare at her for a moment, I mutter several Gallifreyan swear words then return to my work. Her attention is fixed on me, her Time Lord mind soaking in any information it can. I pull out the last of the components I'll need and stand up to face her.

'OK,' I gather everything into my pockets and gesture to the vortex manipulator on my wrist, 'hold onto this and we can get out of here.'

'Wow! This is Earth?' she gaps and spins in a circle, apparently un-phased by time travel with no capsule. 'Look at all the water; it's so beautiful.'

We've arrived on a wide path next to a sandy beach. It's sunny and there are humans wandering around, I project disinterest at them so they don't panic from our sudden appearance. I sniff deeply,

'Yes. This is England; his favourite. The east coast I believe.'

'We've changed our position in time as well, haven't we? I can sense it's different,' she walks out onto the sand.

'Yes, you could bump into Martha in this time period. Don't look for Donna though, what with the meta-crisis…' I grin to myself and she paddles into the sea, soaking her boots.

I turn away and move to a bench by the flower bed dividing the path from the road. I pull out the components then set up the beacon. The clone runs back up the beach and looks down at what I'm doing,

'Is it working?'

I turn it on with my laser screwdriver,

'It is now. I've sent the signal; he'll turn up at some point, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

'Here's the vortex manipulator,' I remove it from my wrist and hand it over, 'don't loose any of the pieces. I'm going to get some chips.'

I walk away towards the shops that always line a sea front in a town like this.

'Can I borrow your screwdriver? And can you get me some chips too?' she calls after me.

I shrug and turn back to face her,

'Do NOT take that apart,' I instruct as I throw the laser to her.

She salutes me and sits cross-legged and sideways on the bench to study the vortex manipulator. I smirk and spin on my heel to go and find food. It's been a long time since I had time to eat without rushing.

As I get closer to the shops the human smell gets stronger, I wrinkle my nose a little but if I'm honest it's no worse than most of the races in the galaxy. One male definitely recognises me, he double-takes and stares in confusion; I grin at him and keep walking. I know it is generally accepted Harry Saxon died; maybe I should have gone for a different co-ordinates.

I walk into the first fish and chip shop I come to. It's been a long time since I had to mentally 'prompt' one of these apes but it has never been hard. Humans have basically no mental defences; there's nothing native to this plan they would need them against, so I just plant the desire to give me free chips. I have no money and no intention of earning any so this is the easiest way without drawing attention.

I go back to the sea front and drop a portion of chips by the clone. She's half-way though disassembling the vortex manipulator and doesn't look up. I move to the next bench and lay down on my back, eyes closed, placing the chips on the bench above my head. This is likely to be a long wait.

Two hours later; I have long since finished the chips and am lying on the bench watching clouds. The clone has reassembled the vortex manipulator, though I haven't checked her work, and walked off down the beach after overhearing someone mention rock pools. Meanwhile, I have scratched two Gallifreyan curse words into my bench in a fit of childishness and 'prompted' two apes to fetch me wotsits and expensive champagne respectively.

Then, finally, I'm aware of the welcome sound of the last living TARDIS in existence and the mental presence of the Doctor. I smile slightly and turn my head, still resting on my arms, to watch the TARDIS materialise.

The Doctor bounds out of the door a moment later. He's regenerated since I last saw him and I can tell he's a lot older. His mind is enthusiastically open and he greets me mentally even as he strides over.

He's enthusiastic and delighted rather than confused, which throws me a little.

I stay still as he approaches and end up looking up at him as he stands close, then he hauls me into a sitting position by my hoodie. I let my arms drop to my sides and offer him a slight glare.

'My Lord Master,' he smiles.

'Lord Doctor,' I reply in kind; the Gallifreyan making the exchange ceremonial, 'we're being formal?'

'Hardly,' the Doctor replies as he sits besides my legs on the bench and rests his forehead against mine.

I repress a shiver at the contact, physical and mental as the Doctor's mind brushes against the barriers of my own. It's been a very, very long time since anyone has been happy to see me.

'How are you, Doctor?' I whisper, content for the moment not to break this strange atmosphere that has descended.

He just hums and appears to bask in my presence. I notice that while one of his hands has returned to his own lap the other is still fisted in the material of my hoodie.

It's clearly been a long time since he saw me. He would also seem to have forgotten who I am if he thinks we're normally so chummy…

But this is strangely comfortable and can only help my future plans, so I relax a little against him,

'Doctor,' I remember his clone is around somewhere, 'I have some good news,' my voice comes out too soft to sound adequately mocking.

'Hmm?' he pulls back a little and rests two of the fingers from his free hand against my temple. Before I can say another word he presses his consciousness against the outer layer of my mind.

I gasp at the sensation and shudder away for a moment, then realising what he thought I meant I drop a layer of defence and let him in. I swallow heavily as his mind presses into my own.

'The drums are gone,' he murmurs aloud as he withdraws.

'That you took what I said as an invitation to invade my mind is strangely charming, my Doctor,' I tell him quietly. I realise I've closed my eyes and when I open them I find him almost intimately close. 'But the drums are not what I meant.'

He pulls back a bit and lets his fist release my hoodie,

'You could have stopped me,' he smiles.

'I have been reliably informed that kicking puppies is bad,' I retort with a smirk.

He actually pouts. My smirk strengthens. He blinks at me,

'OK then,' he looks contemplative now, 'I assume the others stabilised your regeneration? Presumably in exchange for some help you didn't give.'

I shrug,

'They wanted me to get them out of the Time Lock. After what happened I wasn't going to do that.'

'How did you get out?'

'Same why Rassilon tried to,' I shrug again. 'But I didn't try to tow an entire planet behind me. I used a vortex manipulator to get to the Shadow Proclamation to avoid being pulled back when we stopped the others. Escaping Rassilon in the first place was harder; he was very angry once he'd regenerated, and moving back in time within the Time Lock without being tracked by either side…'

'You're brilliant,' the Doctor tells me with a beaming smile.

I try to avoid glowing under this attention, at least visibly,

'So you've said before,' I tell him. 'That's still not what I meant though.'

'I give up,' the Doctor scowls at me, 'what's the news?'

'I'll give you a clue,' I draw out the time I have with his undivided attention, 'it's nothing to do with me.'

He blinks at me in confusion,

'Me?'

'No.'

He glances away and his mental attention shifts from just me. I watch as he eyes go suddenly wide and his mind snaps away from me toward his clone,

'Another? Jenny?!' he exclaims. 'But… I saw her die! I waited but… She didn't regenerate. It was my fault and… She didn't regenerate!'

'She was young,' I dismiss, 'it takes time sometimes.

'You need to see to her education, Doctor. She didn't recognise me as a Time Lord, she has only a fundamental knowledge of science and she doesn't even speak Gallifreyan. She shouldn't be leaning of our species from me.'

The Doctor is staring off down the coast for his clone and is clearly not listening to me. He gets to his feet a little uncertainly.

'Go in then,' I sound bitter even to myself. 'There are three of us now. No need to attach yourself to me.'

The Doctor turns back to face me,

'I spent centuries when we were younger chasing after you. Our entire species was alive then; my _family _was alive then!'

I'm really not in the mood for his memories of our skewed relationship,

'Yes; it was a delight. Now go to your daughter.'

He stubbornly stands his ground, staring at me, so I look away. My gaze falls on the TARDIS and she greets me with surprising warmth.

The Doctor glances at her over his shoulder,

'You want me to go to Jenny so you can get into the TARDIS?' he snaps at me. 'You know I'll stop you from trying anything; I always have before.'

I cross my arms over my chest, perfectly aware that such a plan should have been at the top of my mind,

'Sometimes, my Doctor, you know me too well,' I give him what is probably a very pained smirk and look away, but not before I see his expression swap to confused.

'Dad?' the clone interrupts.

'Jenny!' I hear him gush at her. 'I'm so sorry I left you, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!'

There's a pause as they undoubtedly hug. I refuse to turn around even thought it means I'm sulking rather noticeably.

'This is the TARDIS,' the Doctor tells her enthusiastically, 'she'd love to meet you!'

'I can feel a presence in my head,' the clone is clearly fascinated. 'Is that her?'

'You should be able to feel me as well. The Master is shielding.'

'That's amazing!' she laughs, then she's suddenly hugging me, 'thank you! You're the best!'

I don't have time to do more that tense before she's off again heading for the TARDIS. I stare after her as she disappears from view followed by the Doctor.

I stay on my bench, still hugging my knees, and ponder my choices. I had thought I wanted to take the TARDIS, but now I'm here I don't feel the need. The drums that would normally drive me into it are absent and I'm lost without them.

There's nothing here that I want or need.

I stand, retrieve my vortex manipulator, and walk away.


	5. Chapter 5

Now I have no idea what to do.

My entire plan was to get the TARDIS, but apparently I don't really want her.

Without the drums I no longer feel a drive toward any grand plan of domination and competition with the Doctor. Maybe, once I've been back a while, I'll start to feel more like myself.

I could do some experiments here to entertain myself; I've heard of the humans speak of a bird that regenerates itself every time it dies and I think I could probably engineer one using some of the sequences from my own DNA. A phoenix would be an appropriate pet for a Time Lord.

Or I could create my own time machine. It wouldn't be a TARDIS; it wouldn't be alive, but I would be able to travel and the work creating it would keep me busy.

After fifteen minutes or so I hear the Doctor run up behind me. He slows to a walk a little way off and keeps pace with me,

'Master? Where are you going?'

'That way,' I nod forward, clenching my hands in my trouser pockets.

'OK,' he pauses. 'When will you be back?'

'Back?' I scoff at him. 'Why would I be back?'

There's silence between us for a moment.

'We're on Earth,' he states slowly. 'You hate Earth. Why would you want to stay?'

'There's nothing for me on the TARDIS either,' I tell him.

He catches my elbow and stops me walking; I turn to glare at him.

'Anyway,' I continue irreverently, 'it wasn't so bad the last two times.'

A pained look rushes across his face,

'You died and got pulled into a Time Lock.'

'Good times,' I sneer.

'You're going to stay on a planet you hate, surrounded by a species you despise because…? This is to spite me? Because I didn't save you? Because I couldn't save…' he stutters to a halt.

I pull my arm from his grip, my scowl deepening,

'Because the drums are gone!' I hiss at him. 'They drove me in everything I did; in everything I became. They were a constant for me and now they're gone and I don't know what I want anymore.'

'You did come for the TARDIS,' he states quietly.

'Yes.'

We stare at each other.

'You're free,' he steps a little closer, showing me his hands as if to show himself unarmed. 'You're whatever you want to be. Please come with me? I can help you like I should have long ago. Please.'

'I don't need your help,' I snap, taking a step away, 'your _pity_!'

'Master,' he appeals to me, reaching out a hand. 'Master…'

I do love it when he says my name.

'You think you're responsible for me. To help me, to stop me, to _control _me! I do not want to be your prisoner; your _pet_! Doctor, if you want…'

A sudden feeling of _wrongness_ rushes over me and my sentence falters. We both look over at the town.

'Of all the luck,' I murmur, 'it's the freak.'

'Jack… what's he doing here?'

We stand should to shoulder, argument currently put aside but not forgotten, as we watch the freak emerge from a side-street and head our way. He hasn't spotted us yet.

'Well,' I answer sarcastically, 'it could be a coincidence.'

The Doctor grins at me,

'Torchwood probably detected your vortex manipulator.'

'Are you going to greet your ape or shall we run?' I eye the male distastefully.

The Doctor glances back the way we came, then to me, the freak and back to me, presumably judging his options, but then the freak has spotted us.

Or, more to the point, he spots me.

'You!' he shouts and draws his gun, pointing it at my head as he runs forward. 'Hands up where I can see them!'

I merely raise my eyebrows and am about to reply when the Doctor steps between us,

'Jack! It's alright, he's with me!'

The gun drops a little as the freak hesitates,

'Doctor?'

'Yeah, regenerated again,' I see him hold his arms out to his sides as if to give the freak a better view.

I recoil a step backward as the freak steps closer; his existence is actively repulsive to my temporal sense.

'You don't call, you don't write!' he claps the Doctor on the shoulder as he holsters his gun.

'How can you stand to be so close to him?' I ask the Doctor in Gallifreyan as they hug. 'He's so _wrong_.'

The Gallifreyan carries the sense of temporal outrage quite nicely.

'Hush,' the Doctor replies in kind. 'You get used to it.'

'I'd rather not,' I point out.

The freak has stepped to the side and is looking between us,

'Is the TARDIS not here? It doesn't seem to be translating.'

'The TARDIS doesn't translate Gallifreyan,' the Doctor tells him. 'Our tenses would give you a headache, but mostly Time Lords do not need their own language translated.'

'And it's nice to be able to talk behind someone's back to their face,' I smirk, still using Gallifreyan.

To my surprise the Doctor smiles at me.

'Shouldn't he be restrained in some way?' the freak demands.

'Jack!' the Doctor scolds him, amusing me.

'Can I kill him please?' I ask the Doctor while smiling my Harry Saxon vote-for-me smile.

The Doctor glances at me,

'No.'

'He'd come right back,' I pout exaggeratedly at him.

He grins at me,

'Still no.'

'What's he saying?' the freak questions demandingly.

'Nothing important,' the Doctor replies with a straight face, making me grin and the freak look suspicious.

'Doctor,' he freak scowls at me and pulls the Doctor away from me a little, but not far enough that I can't hear everything he says, 'I don't know what he's said to you, but he's dangerous. I know he's the only other Time Lord, but he's not like you. You can't make him like you. You can't trust him.'

'He didn't have to tell me he was here,' the Doctor points out.

I sigh; now he's done it.

'What?!' the freak explodes and the gun is out again. 'He's been loose? Loose on Earth? What were you thinking?'

'Jack, please listen! He called me! He didn't have to.'

'It's all part of his plan,' the freak dismisses. 'He likes to torture you or he likes your attention, take your pick, but don't trust him!'

'Captain,' the Doctor's voice hardens, 'I'm not asking your permission. This is my decision.'

'This is my planet more than yours! You aren't human!'

'Neither are you,' I retort as the Doctor struggles between hurt and outraged. 'If you two have quite finished deciding my life…'

'You're a murderer!' humans can be so obvious.

'Yes,' I agree, 'and so are you and so is he. I, however, have not committed quite as many genocides as your precious Doctor here. How many are you up to now?'

The Doctor gives me a pained look,

'Master, that's not helpful.'

'Ah, you wanted to lie to him, sorry.'

'Master…'

'Besides; this is proving my point about staying with you. Catch up with your ape, I'm leaving.'

'No, please,' he catches my arm again, turning his back to the freak. 'Where will you go?'

'America,' I shrug. 'Does it mater? You'll hear quickly enough if I _misbehave_.'

'You can't leave him here!' the freak objects.

'Let me make him forget?' I ask, exasperated.

The gun is pointed a my head again for a split second before the Doctor lunges between us again,

'Always with the guns!'

'He wants to erase my mind!'

'You want to kill him!'

'He might not have killed anyone since he's been back, but I bet he's done something you wouldn't approve of!'

I smirk, which retrospectively didn't help our case.

The freak gestures at me with the gun,

'Ask him!'

'Master?' the Doctor switches to Gallifreyan.

'Free chips, wotsits and champagne,' I shrug.

'People who could afford it?'

'Champagne guy may have been late back from his lunch break.'

'Petty things,' the Doctor swaps languages. 'Not worth killing over. Nothing would make me let you kill him.'

'And how long has he been back? It will escalate, Doctor! He will get worse if you don't at least restrain him.'

'I'm not going to keep him locked up the rest of our lives!'

'Then step aside!' he cocks his gun.

The Doctor stands his ground.

'Do you know how many times he killed me that year? Doctor? Three times a day. At least. Every day, Doctor. Now step aside.'

'No,' the Doctor refuses quietly.

'Enough,' I snap.

I push the Doctor aside, step forward and press my fingers to the freaks temples. I feel a burn in my shoulder and sink into the ape's mind. Direct contact makes it easier to make the 'suggestion' powerful and ensures it will last. I send him home.

I pull away from him mentally and physically and watch as he walks away looking a little vacant. I blink and I'm sitting on the floor, the Doctor is pressing his jacket to my shoulder and supporting me as I lean sideways against his chest.

'Damn you,' he mutters. 'What were you thinking?'

'He…' I swallow, 'he pointed a gun at you.'

'Yes,' he laughs a little brokenly, a tear runs down his cheek, 'yes he did.'

'He would have shot you,' I tell him and rest my head under his chin.

'He knew I could regenerate.'

'So can I.'

'You won't need to,' he holds me tighter, 'he hasn't killed you; you'll be fine.'

'Why are you crying?'

'Because you're screaming in my mind.'

'Put up your defences,' I close my eyes.

'I don't want to. Master! Don't you dare do this to me again! Master..!'


	6. Chapter 6

The TARDIS hums a happy greeting in my mind; she's not one to hold a grudge.

I open my eyes and blink in the dimmed lighting. I look to my left; the Doctor is asleep, holing my hand with his head resting on the bed beside my good shoulder. That thought awakens the burn in my other shoulder and I groan softly.

'Hello,' the clone whisper from the doorway across the room to my right, 'I fixed your shoulder.'

I nod to her then look back at the Doctor,

'Thank you,' I lever my way to sitting. 'How long have I been unconscious and where are we?'

'Two days,' I can hear the smile in her voice, 'the TARDIS is showing me a nebula since dad has been here with you.'

'Not Earth,' I ignore the implications of the last thing she said, 'good.' I flex my shoulder a little and wince.

'Dad taught me Gallifreyan,' she continues, 'and about being a Time Lord. I think he had more to say, but he wanted to catch up with you.'

A thought occurs to me,

'You fixed my shoulder… please tell me that was knowledge you already had? I've seen his needle work…'

'I was born knowing how to clean and dress battle wound,' she reports, I half expect a 'sir' at the end.

I pull my hand out from under the Doctor's,

'Let's find the kitchen.'

I stand up and look down at myself, I'm wearing pyjamas. My clothes from before had seen better days, even before getting probably quite a large hole in the shoulder.

'This way,' she points left and leads the way down the corridor.

The TARDIS supplies us with fish fingers and custard for no apparent reason. We both ignore the custard. I eat quickly.

'I heard you scream,' she blurts suddenly, I glance at her anxious face. 'Just once.'

'Getting shot hurts.'

'I remember,' she grimaces.

'The Doctor showed you how to defend?'

'Yes, and I did without even needing to think about it really. I just knew I needed to and it worked. I think Dad didn't.'

I nod,

'He's an idiot.'

I gather extra food onto a plate and return to the sick room. The Doctor is still sleeping, but not peacefully. I move over to him as he twitches and scowls.

I notice the clone hasn't followed me back here before I touch his touch his temple gently to assess his mind.

I gasp; the Doctor has no defences up at all and I've fallen straight into the maelstrom of his unconscious mind. There is nothing but swirling chaos for several exhilarating moments then a sort of recognition. The storm calms and his mind acknowledges me even as it flexes back into shape as he wakes.

I pull out of his mind and watch as he opens his eyes. We stare at each other.

'Master,' he suddenly lunges at me, hugging me tightly against him, making me wince as he jostles my shoulder.

'Doctor,' I catch his hips before I topple over, 'you seem to have kidnapped me.'

'Only a little,' he pulls back to sit in his chair and grins at me. 'It was mostly the TARDIS's fault. If she refuses to land on Earth again I'm going to be upset.'

'If she refuses to land on Earth it just proves she has better taste than you,' I point out. 'Though I fail to see how she could have kidnapped me.'

'She rematerialised next to us while you were busy bleeding to death in my arms. Again. Jenny helped me bring you on board and before we even got you up here she dematerialised from Earth and settled us in the middle of nowhere.

'These are good with custard,' he adds as he takes the food from me.

'You have no defences up,' I scold as I lean back against the headboard of the bed.

'I couldn't sleep when I blocked you,' he has the good grace to look embarrassed.

I huff a breath,

'You do realise that we're going to drive each other mad.'

He shrugs and glances at me before looking back to his food,

'You don't have to stay just because the TARDIS wants to keep you.'

'I did not know I would have a choice,' I reply diplomatically.

'I'm tired of fighting you,' he sighs, suddenly looking his years. 'You say you don't want to either? Then we can try that.

'I have Jenny to travel with me if you won't come,' he smiles again, and then a look I can't identify crosses his face. 'She can play intermediary if you do.'

'Ah, yes,' I watch him closely, 'the clone. Magnificent work by the way.'

The look returns and he drops his gaze back to his food,

'She wasn't my idea; she was generated without my permission.'

'Well, if you will insist on meeting all the far flung humans in the galaxy…'

He doesn't reply so we sit in silence for a while. It doesn't seem to be strained, though we have always interacted better together when unobserved.

'You like her,' he blurts suddenly.

'Seriously? You're warning me off your daughter?' I scowl at him. 'She's only a couple of years old.'

'She likes you too,' he tells me defensively.

'Oh, done deal then,' I sneer.

'Alright,' he puts up his hands, 'sorry I said anything.'

I snort at him and cross my arms, wincing again as my shoulder burns.

'Come on,' he says finally, 'let's get the TARDIS to give you a room.'

'I don't remember agreeing to stay,' I remind him.

'Just until your shoulder heals,' he proposes. 'Come on, I'll drop you off wherever you like when you're better; I promise.'

I study him for a moment,

'OK,' I agree finally.

'Great!' he beams.

We fall in step together on the way to the console room. The TARDIS hums to both of us as the Doctor throws some controls around. I walk to the doors and have a look outside. We're orbiting a collapsing nebula; a baby star.

'The TARDIS likes you too,' the Doctor appears beside me.

'You were a lot more upset about the whole paradox-machine thing than she ever was.'

He grins and leans against the doorframe beside me. I watch him watching the spiralling dust outside.

'Probably,' he agrees quietly, 'being able to see everything at once gives her strange ideas about things.'

'Actually she was quite upset with your for locking her co-ordinates,' I tell him.

He pats the doorframe and doesn't respond. I turn back to the view outside and we watch silently.

* * *

AN~

It occurred to me that I didn't say anything in the previous chapters I uploaded and that I probably should.

I guess my general theory behind the Doctor and the Master is that they are both somewhat unhinged in their own ways but the Doctor is more comfortable in his skin (regardless of his regeneration) than the Master. I don't know if my thoughts of them come through in my writing, but I try.

One last thing: the Master does not understand how to read emotions in people that he doesn't find himself feeling. As I'm mostly using his POV this means I won't be able to properly describe everything but I think knowing his character it should be clear enough anyway.

Cheers, ~Teri


	7. Chapter 7

I raid the Doctor's wardrobe for a new suit after he's shown me to my room.

The TARDIS, in her unspeakable wisdom, has put my room next door to the Doctor's. The Doctor looks mildly embarrassed by this and I give him a disgruntled look before telling him to stop hovering.

I take a scolding hot shower while I'm alone and lay out my new suit on my bed. It won't take the Doctor long to reappear.

The room will be bare and grey until I decide what to do with it. I stand in the middle in a towel considering how much space the TARDIS will let me take and so how much equipment I can get in here. I know the Doctor has massive vaults of technology downstairs from when I was in possession of the TARDIS before and he won't miss it.

I've not even dried off before the Doctor barges back into my room.

'Well, it's very dull in here,' the Doctor tells me glancing around the room then peaking into the bathroom.

'I was showering,' I point out.

He glances at me, seeming to notice I'm not dressed for the first time,

'Oh.'

'Never mind,' I shrug, 'what did you want?'

I remove the towel from around my waist. His eyes go comically wide and he spins to face the wall; I laugh at his back.

'Hmm… ahh…I was… Right, taking Jenny to New Earth; to New New York,' he tells me. 'Do you want to come?'

'You're obsessed with humans,' I wrinkle my nose as I pull on my trousers.

'There are cats too!'

'Magnificent,' I drawl. 'You can turn around; you prude.'

'Right,' he grins as he faces me, then he blinks as he watches me button my shirt, 'should I call you Harry?'

I smirk,

'You know what I like you to call me.'

He grins at me,

'So, will you come?'

'Humans, cats and the three Time Lords in existence… What could be more fun?' I murmur as I shrug on my jacket.

There is little reason to stay onboard the TARDIS on my own. The only thing I want to do is move equipment into my room and that can wait for when I can't sleep.

'Brilliant,' the Doctor smiles and claps his hands together.

His new face seems designed to be happy.

His obvious delight in my company doesn't make me happy. At all.

He steps right up to me and I force myself to remain still as he reaches for me. I am just worrying as he reaches for my throat, but then he straightens my tie. I smirk at him,

'Am I presentable?'

'You're gorgeous,' he tells me and claps me on the shoulder before striding from my room.

I follow him after a moment frozen in surprise. He bounces as he walks,

'Have you been to New Earth recently?'

'No. It's populated by humans, remember?'

'Don't pout,' he instructs. 'It doesn't suit you.'

'Pick somewhere more interesting for us to visit next time then.'

He beams at me, nearly glowing,

'You said next time!'

Shit.

'Oh hush,' I dismiss.

We arrive in the console room where the Doctor's daughter, as I'm trying to force myself to think of her, is waiting. She's also paid a visit to the Doctor's wardrobe and has a new set of clothes in the same style as before, her boots appear to be the same.

If the Doctor is correct and she's interested in me… That's just weird. I try to think if would have reacted differently if I still had the drums.

Probably.

I feel a little sick.

The Doctor is chatting away with his clone… daughter… now and starts throwing controls around on the console sending us spiralling though the void. I catch a railing and hold it tightly until we crash to a halt. The Doctor keeps chatting away and leads his daughter to the exit, busy gesturing to everything. She follows his lead, clearly delighted by what she's seeing.

I lean against the closed door of the TARDIS as I watch them. The Doctor's phone rings and his expression swaps from happy, to bemused and then to blank. He looks over to me then throws me the phone. I catch it easily but don't look at it.

'You answer it. I don't want to talk to him.'

Ah; it's the freak then.

'The Doctor's phone,' I drop my voice an octave.

The Doctor offers me a quick smile then walks out of hearing range, half towed by his daughter.

There's silence from the other end of the phone, but I can imagine the freak's expression and it makes me smile.

'He's angry with me,' he finally says.

'He quite likes me,' I reply simply, watching as the Doctor allows himself to be distracted, 'for whatever reason.'

There's a pause that I feel no need to fill.

'What did you do to me?'

'I embedded the desire to return home into your subconscious,' I smirk. 'It isn't hard to manipulate the minds of apes.'

'You do things like that and the Doctor still thinks you're good now?' he scoffs.

'In the good Doctor's defence you shot me,' I point out. 'And I did you no harm whatsoever.'

'I'd like to speak to the Doctor,' he sounds as though that came though gritted teeth; playing polite is hurting him.

'He doesn't want to speak with you,' I refuse. 'I don't actually make a habit of answering his phone.'

'You'd take a bullet for him,' he snaps back. 'I don't think it's much of a stretch to assume some familiarity.'

He does have a point.

'What's your game?' he demands. 'What are you doing to him?'

'Oh, your clever wording has tricked me into revealing my evil plan!' I scoff.

'It must involve the Doctor, as you clearly mean to keep him alive…' he's thinking out loud now.

Then his words register in my mind,

'You meant to shot the Doctor?' I know I sound shocked.

There's silence then the line is cut.

I am fuming as I put the phone into my pocket. What is wrong with this ape? I understand him wishing to shoot me; I did torture him for a year. I am an arsehole. Or I was an arsehole; I haven't decided what I am now.

The Doctor though? He has only ever defended Earth. He would die for any one of the pathetic natives of that planet. That the freak would shoot him just to get a chance at me?

I seethe as I move to catch up with the other two. I pause at a junction; right into the town or left towards some meadows. The scents of the two Time Lords split here. I follow the Doctor into the meadow.

I find him lying on his back, his arms crossed behind his head, staring up at the sky. I join him silently; lying down a couple of feet to his right, favouring my bad shoulder. I remove my jacket and ball it into a pillow then close my eyes and try to relax.

'Jenny went exploring,' he tells me after a while.

'Hmm,' I acknowledge.

'Are you asleep?' I hear him roll over to look at me.

'Yes.'

This gains me some additional liberty but I can feel his attention is still fixed on me. I sigh and open my eyes,

'Doctor?'

'You're angry,' he states. 'Why?'

My mind flashes though the things I could tell him, but find I have no desire to avoid telling him the truth,

'He intended to shoot you.'

'And that makes you angry?'

I cover my face with my arms.

'Master, why did you even signal me? And why bring Jenny?'

'I don't know,' my voice comes out muffled. 'Maybe because, after everything I've done, you didn't shoot me even when you had every possible excuse to.'

He pokes me in the side and I swat at him without opening my eyes.

'You're welcome,' I can hear the smile in his voice.

I swat him again, but I'm smiling and I'm sure he can see.

We lay in comfortable silence for a while. I'm watching the sky and the Doctor's watching me, something I strangely don't find disturbing.

'We're the only true Time Lords left,' he murmurs. 'I mean, there are four of us really, but we're the only ones who've actually seen Gallifrey. We're the only two who actually _understand_.'

I turn to look at him,

'Four?'

'River Song, or Melody Pond if you prefer… She's, umm…' he tails off looking embarrassed.

'She's yours then,' I mutter and turn back to the sky, closing my eyes.

'No!' he exclaims. 'No, she's the daughter of two humans. She was… conceived on the TARDIS, in the void, on their wedding night.'

I stare at him, unaware of what I could possibly say to this new piece of information.

'Yes,' the Doctor shrugs awkwardly where he is leaning on his elbows to look at me, 'it never occurred to me that could happen either.'

'Actually, properly, Time Lord?' I finally splutter, sitting up.

'She's regenerated several times to my knowledge,' he nods. 'She's given the rest to save my life though.'

My mind is racing. I look across the meadow unseeing and I consider the possibilities. A new race of Time Lords, from humans…

'What are you thinking?'

'You know very well what I'm thinking,' I tell him. 'You must have thought it too.'

'Yes,' he agrees easily. 'Will you think about it though? There was a reason our people didn't interfere. Can you imagine a Time Lord race modelled on us?'

'We would probably mange to avoid making babies look into the Time Vortex…' I sound bitter.

He doesn't reply. There is little he could say.

'If anything happens to one of us,' I break the silence after a while, 'that's it for the other. You have lived though that but I don't believe I would cope very well with no… competition.'

'You think a Time Lord born from a human would be a good replacement? Anyway, are you offering to do the child rearing?'

'It would be better than nothing,' I mutter and lie back down. 'It's very quiet.'

'You miss the drums?' he murmurs as he settles back onto his stomach, resting his chin on his arms.

'No,' I lie venomously.

'Sorry.'

I fume, angry at myself. I'm free of the drums; I shouldn't miss them and I should be able to sleep without them!

'Master?' he ventures quietly. 'You understand that if only one other Time Lord had to exist that… umm… You wouldn't be my last choice?'

This throws me and I forget my anger as shock replaces it. I do manage to control myself as I reply,

'Rassilon is below me?'

He snorts his amusement,

'Not even my second to last choice.'

'Aren't you the charmer this regeneration…'


	8. Chapter 8

The Doctor stands to leave the meadow as the sun begins to set breaking me from my half-doze. I follow him, silently falling in step as we jump the fence and move between the buildings.

As we walk he keeps glancing over his shoulder his shoulder at me, as if to ensure I'm still following. It's rather pathetic; he can clearly sense me in other ways.

'Why haven't you left?' he asks quietly.

I don't say anything. I'm irritated at myself for my change in character, all the more obvious now I'm out of the Time Lock.

'You've had the chance…' he tries. 'I haven't stopped you. I wouldn't…'

'Doctor,' I interrupt, 'if you had been within the Time Lock I would not have left it.'

I hunch my shoulders a little and look away after my little confession. I refuse to look at him but I can see he's turned to face me.

Then he's hugging me.

I flinch slightly but don't pull away. He's trapped my arms to my sides but I can drop my head forward to his shoulder.

'Master,' he clutches my suit.

That's enough for me, even now without the drums. I wriggle free of his grasp and pull away. He's gazing at me adoringly so I glare at him,

'Don't,' I snap. 'I don't know who I am anymore but that doesn't make me one of your hangers-on. I am not _yours_.'

'You're not human,' he steps close but doesn't touch me, 'that changes the entire dynamic. We're equals, Master, and we could be brilliant!'

'Go find your daughter,' I mutter, reassured despite myself, and turn to walk back to the TARDIS.

He lets me go without further comment but I can feel his eyes on me as I walk away.

* * *

I lean against the TARDIS console considering my options. She hums a greeting then leaves me alone.

I need to sort out my mind. I need to decide what I _want_. I know what I would have done before, but that is apparently not who I am now without the drums.

Introspective is apparently what I am now.

I curse out loud and move deeper into the TARDIS. I need to find something to distract me from all this for a while.

I move down into the TARDIS vaults to find something to play with. I step though the door and look across the room which extends for miles in front of me and to the sides. It's strangely organised for something the Doctor owns, which means the TARDIS herself probably maintains it.

The first aisle I try has a site to site transport sitting in the middle of the walkway.

'Subtle,' I murmur to the TARDIS and pick it up. I can obviously program this to the co-ordinates of my room and transport lots of components up at once; apparently the TARDIS is happy with this plan.

Six hours later I have a working laser rifle, a vortex detector and a sphere that spins and beeps if I glare at it and chirrups if I pet it. I'm just pondering how to let it move around on its own, the next step being a basic brain, when the Doctor's presence disappears from my mind.

I hadn't really noticed how calming his existence was to me before it's not there anymore. I stumble and gasp a reflexive breath as my mind reaches for where he was only a moment ago.

'He's not dead,' I say aloud. The TARDIS ignores me but my sphere hums sympathetically; I may have done some rather nice work on its empathy capabilities.

I pick up my laser rifle and set it charging as I walk to the console room.

'Anything?' I ask the TARDIS as I scan for Time Lord life-signs.

They're both gone. I scowl at the read out; something has happened to them on this cesspool of a planet. My feeling of general outrage mounts; that someone could do this; that someone would _dare_ do this!

I stalk out of the TARDIS with my rifle to demand answers. I ignore the stares I'm receiving from the natives until I have travelled down the route the Doctor's daughter took when she split from him, and then I catch the arm of the next human who passes me.

I glare at his surprised face then plunge into his mind,

He's been taken. Where is he? I project across his mind; searching out conscious and unconscious acknowledgement for what I desire.

'There's… gang,' his eyes roll back into his head. 'North of river… under bridge. People missing…'

I may have damaged his mind with my anger. I let him drop onto the street where another human sobs and gathers him to her chest. He'll probably be alright in time.

There's a lot of shouting from behind me but the rifle keeps anyone from approaching me. I saw an image in his mind of where he thought the gang resided so I know where I'm going.

Then there are two humans and a cat baring my way with weapons of their own.

'Get out of my way,' I snarl.

'He's the other one!' the left human hisses. 'There'll be no one left on their ship now!'

'I gathered that,' the other human snaps. 'Put your weapon down and raise your hands!'

'And if I don't?' I sneer at him.

'There is on one of you and three of us, and more who'll come if we call,' he replies calmly.

'What do you want?'

'Your ship,' he tells me flatly. 'Now drop your weapon!'

'You have no hope of being able to fly her,' I tell him.

'Your weapon! I won't ask again!'

I grin at him then smash my mind forward; they keel backward even as I stagger a step forward myself. I shot them for good measure and continue on toward the entrance to their base.

There is an entrance to the sewer under the bridge over the river that shows evidence of recent use. I approach it carefully; my rifle is drawn and my mind is probing. I can't sense anyone for several hundred meters so I duck into the tunnel. It's dark and damp, the walls uneven, mossy brick. Before it becomes impossible to see there is a sharp turn to the right and the faintest glimmer of light in the distance.

As I approach a voice floats down the corridor to meet me,

'…do this! I can help, really I can.'

The Doctor's voice; the relief of knowing he's alive takes me by surprise. I pause at the door at the end of the corridor, listening to the situation beyond. It occurs to me that if they can block the Doctor's mind from me then they could hide themselves too.

'We're going to get off this planet,' a human murmurs indifferently. 'We will have your ship soon; we don't need your help.'

'You really don't want to try taking my ship,' the Doctor warns.

'I really think I do.'

'There are three of us,' he warns again, 'and the one you haven't caught isn't as…'

I tense as I wait for him to pass judgement.

'…forgiving as I am.'

'That is an understatement,' I smirk and step though the doorway.

It isn't so much a room as a slight widening of the tunnel where several pipes join together. There are channels in the floor for the water to run through, but the entire place is still damp. Lighting comes from three lamps hung precariously from hooks embedded in the ceiling.

The human is staring at me in surprise from where he has clearly just been looking over the confiscated contents of the Doctor's pockets; he has had the good sense to draw his gun on me however.

The Doctor himself is the opposite side of the tunnel; he's wearing a metal collar around his neck that is probably related to the device on the wall behind him. His daughter is wearing a similar collar and appears unconscious a few meters away.

He takes an automatic step toward me then flinches and steps back when the collar activates.

I glare at the human,

'How quickly would you like to die?'

'Master, no!' the Doctor shouts. 'This doesn't have to end in death. You don't want to be on this planet but I can't help you with that. Just let us go and we'll forget about this.'

'Lower your gun!' the human orders.

'Master, please,' the Doctor appeals to me, 'you don't have to kill anymore. Please, for me.'

I hesitate and glance at him; he nods encouragingly.

The human's gun whines as the power redistributes just before it fires giving me a split second warning to dodge before he fires. I return fire immediately at the same time as hurling my hatred into his mind.

I close my eyes, expecting the Doctor's rage. It doesn't come.

'Master,' he murmurs, 'come here.'

I walk to him quite without thinking and he wraps his arms around me,

'I'm not angry,' he tells me. 'I'd show you how not angry I am, but this collar is blocking us.'

I stand stiffly for a moment, then give in and burrow my face under his chin and wrap my arms loosely around his hips,

'I thought you were dead.'

He sighs and murmurs some reassuring nonsense in Gallifreyan against my hair.

'How do I get the collar off?' I ask as I pull away from him.

He gestures to the wall,

'That, probably, I can't go near it or too far from it.'

I hand him my rifle and pull out my laser screwdriver as I move to it.

'Did you make this?' he asks from behind me.

'Yes.'

'From what?' he asks.

'There are all sorts of things in your vault, Doctor,' I point out as I bring up the root directory on the collar controller.

'I really need to tidy up down there.'

I huff a breath,

'The TARDIS already has.'

'Has she really? Excellent! Tidying is boring.'

'I think this is going to hurt, Doctor,' I warn him then adjust a setting.

'GAH!' I hear him cry out as he drops to the floor, then he's making a soft keening sound.

'Sorry, sorry…' I work quickly then sigh in relief as the Doctor's mind reappears behind me.

His mind is a huddled mess of remembered pain, but he's back. I crouch beside him and gently remove the deactivated collar as he shivers with his eyes closed. I brush aside some of his hair with a finger then slip my mind beside his; I silently offer to share the pain but he just rests against me.

'Thank you,' he murmurs as he sits up. I let my hand drop to my lap. 'We need to release Jenny too.'

'Already done,' I reply. 'The consoles were linked.'

He turns to look at her; she's still unconscious,

'At least unconscious she didn't have to feel it.'

'She would have felt nothing anyway,' I tell him as I stand and offer him my hand.

'Oh?'

'I assumed…' I pause. 'I sent all the feedback to you.'

He stares at me in surprise for a second, then pulls me into a tight hug,

'Thank you!'

There's a groan from the floor as his daughter regains consciousness,

'Hey,' the Doctor moves to her quickly, 'look at me…' he studies her face. I can feel as he brushes her mind; he smiles, 'you'll be fine.'

'What happened?' she looks around as he pulls her to her feet.

'The Master came to rescue us,' he tells her as he checks she can stand then moves to the table to retrieve the small pile of items taken from him.

'Doctor, why were you even carrying a Noratan digitaliser?'

'Borrowed it for a thing,' he beams then scowls, 'should probably take it back.'

His daughter moves to my side and loops an arm though mine, resting her head against my good shoulder,

'Thank you for coming,' she hesitantly brushes her mind to mine then retreats.

'You're welcome,' I tell her awkwardly; I didn't come for her or even give her much thought.

We return to the TARDIS by a slightly circular route to avoid going though the town; none of us mention why. Jenny holds my arm the entire trip, clearly tired, and the Doctor watches her anxiously.

Once we've arrived back she disappears off expressing a desire to shower, we were in a sewer after all, and she leaves me with the Doctor.

'You weren't going to shoot him, were you?' the Doctor asks quietly.

'No,' I tell him, staring at the console to avoid his eyes.

'Thank you.'

'I wanted to,' I argue and look up.

'I know,' he agrees. 'There's an important distinction between what we want to do and what we actually do.'

I shrug,

'I'm going to shower. Do you think you'll manage to avoid walking in on me this time?'

He beams at me,

'That is a perfect example!' and walks away.

What?

I shake my head and go to my room with no further comment.


	9. Chapter 9

I can't sleep.

I've never slept well as the drums didn't encourage the lack of activity, but now without them… The silence is deafening.

I did try; I changed into the most comfortable pair of loose trouser I could find and laid down in the dark with some music playing. I just found that I was fixating on the beat in the music so I turned it off, but with no music at all my hearts start to race in a panic response.

I give up and go for a walk through the quiet corridors of the TARDIS. The other two must be sleeping by now so I don't expect to bump into anyone. After several hours of wandering that has failed to exhaust me I arrive in the console room. I open the door to look out on the asteroid field we're currently drifting though; the view isn't the best.

I walk to the console and fiddle with the sensors; there's nothing out there of interest. I move hesitantly to the navigation controls; I don't know if the Doctor has locked them against me and I'm not sure how I'll feel if I find he has.

I sigh, plot a course and remove the break. I find myself surprised when she wheezes into life; he hasn't locked her against me. She rematerialises us on a planet I remember visiting long ago as a child of twenty four. I return to the sensors to check on the planet's progress in the last four thousand years; it is still predominantly jungle across the surface and a species of flying reptiles has learnt to use fire.

'Oh, it was you,' the Doctor makes me jump.

'Who else can fly?' I cover my surprise.

He shrugs and joins me at the monitor,

'She flies herself sometimes,' he pats the console fondly.

'Why are you awake?'

I notice he's wearing pyjamas and his hair could generously be described as a mess. Then I remember I'm only half dressed and smirk to myself.

'I couldn't sleep,' I turn to face him and rest with one hip against the console.

He looks me over then fixes his eyes on my face; I smirk at him and he glares at me.

'Coming out of the Time Lock has probably messed with your temporal sense,' he suggests quite sensibly.

'Oh, it probably has,' I agree, 'but this is an existing problem.'

He scowls and steps a little closer,

'For how long?'

'Well, when I was little I looked into the Time Vortex…' I drawl.

He stares at me in horror.

'To be more accurate,' I feel I should reassure him, 'it got much worse when they took the drums.'

He does look a little bolstered,

'How long ago was that?'

'Twenty eight years since I entered the Time Lock, twenty five since they took the drums,' I tell him calmly. 'In the Time Lock there were the other Time Lords of course, even if I was shielding from them most of the time.'

'If you could hear the drums again…'

'I don't want them back,' I interrupt and take a step back.

'No,' he agrees quickly. 'No, I mean just the sound. Does listening to your hearts beating help?'

'Not really,' I murmur then I shrug a little, 'if they're beating fast… if I'm running or something then yes, a little.'

'Would mine work better?' now our eyes meet steadily.

'What?' I ask, though I know exactly what he means.

'If I projected mine, my hearts beating, would that… Do you think you'd sleep?'

'I don't want to swap one dependency for another,' I tell him shortly. 'When I'm tired enough… if you're good enough not to block me… then I should be able to sleep.'

'You need to sleep,' he argues quietly. 'I won't let you become dependent. You won't let it happen either; you know you won't.'

I look down at the ground off to the side and he steps closer to me.

'Come on,' he catches my elbow. 'Just give it a try tonight. You'll feel better if you've slept.'

He nudges me ahead towards our rooms; his hand briefly rests on my bare back but jerks away again. I hesitate at his door, glancing to my own, but he touches my arm again and I step inside.

His room is a cluttered mess of technology from various civilisations, strange ornaments and piles and piles of books. I pause when I spot a 'Vote Saxon' poster on his desk but he doesn't notice and I don't mention it.

'This is a terrible idea, Doctor,' I tell him as he jumps onto his bed and pulls back the covers on the opposite side for me.

'Don't fuss,' he scolds.

I climb in beside him and he gives be a gentle push to lie down. He pulls the cover up to my shoulders and pats my arm,

'Relax, it's just me.'

I watch him intently as he hovers a little above me but off to the side. He lifts his right hand quite obviously and moves it to my left temple. I flinch a little but he doesn't do anything right away.

'Just relax,' he repeats quietly.

I close my eyes despite myself when the beats begin.


	10. Chapter 10

I blink, disorientated, and sit up. I rub my sore shoulder absently as I look around.

The Doctor is asleep on the other side of his bed; he's facing away from me with one arm sprawled off the edge. At some point in the night the Doctor must have stopped the drums, somehow without waking me, and fallen asleep himself. I've been asleep for around five hours, which is a record for the last several hundred years never mind since the drums have been gone.

I do feel a lot better.

Now I'm not sure what to do. There are a lot of interesting things lying around in this room though; I'm sure I can make them into something.

Several hours later the Doctor flops over with a grunt and blinks himself awake looking to the bed beside him. He blinks a few times then looks down the bed to where I'm sitting cross-legged balancing two variables with his sonic in one hand and my laser in the other.

'Good morning,' he yawns into his pillow before looking over at me again; he doesn't sit up. 'Are you making a…? What are you making?'

'Hovercart,' I tell him, only glancing up quickly so I don't miss the point of resonance.

'Right,' I can hear that he's smiling. 'And you're making it on my bed while not dressed because?'

'I needed your sonic,' I tell him absently.

'And you needed to not get dressed to use my sonic? And you couldn't take my sonic next door?'

'Do you want me to go?' I release the variables at the same time once I have them balanced.

'No,' he denies quickly. 'No, believe me; I'm delighted that you're here.'

'Well then,' I dismiss, then I smirk at him, 'and in answer to your other question; I'm too good looking this regeneration to be covered up all the time.'

He just laughs at me and sprawls onto his back,

'You're a very undemanding bed companion,' he tells me.

'How many have you had?' I ask, amused.

He blushes,

'I…'

'Did they kick you?' I interrupt in case he actually starts to tell me.

'Some of them,' he folds his arms under his head. 'You're a very tidy sleeper; you barely took up any room at all.'

I believe my expression is an absolute picture by the end of that little speech. I shake my head and look back at my project.

'I think I have a Buranton inductor around here somewhere,' he adds sitting up and gazing around the room.

I put the two screwdrivers down and stretch,

'Which generation?'

'Five, I think,' he replies and slips from the bed.

'Nice,' I compliment him, 'five was when they got the balance right.'

'It's either a five or the five-b,' he nods. 'The b is good too.'

I hum my agreement and stand up.

'So,' he pauses for a second, 'did you sleep well?'

'Better than I have in several hundred years,' I admit; it's probably why I'm in such a good mood.

'Excellent,' he beams. 'Breakfast?'

'Can I have something other than fish fingers or custard?'

He just grins at me.

* * *

Being kidnapped only the previous day doesn't put Jenny off of exploring alone, which leaves with the Doctor.

'Why here?' he asks as we lounge outside the TARDIS, far enough away from the closest settlement not to be bothered by the natives.

'I came here once when I was young,' I tell him, rubbing at my shoulder again.

'You'll pull at your stitches,' the Doctor scolds, his expression carefully level.

'It aches,' I complain.

'It'll hurt more if you keep doing that,' he steps up to me and catches my wrist in his hand.

I scowl at him but let him pull my hand from my wound.

'You shouldn't have pushed me away,' he continues, maintaining his grip on my wrist even as I tug gently.

'Of course I should have,' I scoff at him. 'Better me than you. Besides, if he had shot you he would have moved straight on to shooting me anyway, and he probably would have hit somewhere a little more important than my shoulder.'

He splutters over this, his grip on my wrist tightening.

'Let me go,' I shift my wrist in his hold.

'Never,' he replies and releases my wrist to pull me into a hug. 'Just don't let it happen again, ok?'

I shrug awkwardly in his hold and don't reply.

* * *

AN

This is as far as I have currently typed up but I have more written. I hope to upload more on Sunday but I warn you this is no promise.

Thank you to everyone for the reviews :)


	11. Chapter 11

We spend the rest of the day together finishing the Hovercart. By mid afternoon the clearing is littered with tools and technology, our suit jackets and my tie have been draped over a rock and the Doctor has tied his bowtie around his forehead.

That we work so well together shouldn't be a surprise as we know each other so well.

'There,' the Doctor announces finally and sits back on his heels.

I glance up at him, and then back to the engine,

'We're acting like we're thirty again,' I sigh.

'No hills here though,' I can hear his pout, 'we can't test it.'

'I hope you only doubt your own work,' I scowl mockingly, 'my own was exemplary.'

He scoffs at me then drops back to sit on the grass,

'After all that work you don't want to try it?' he tips his head to one side as he gazes at me. 'We'll find somewhere with a hill.'

I find myself smiling at him.

Jenny arrives back out of the jungle at sunset looking delighted in a way I thought only the Doctor was capable of.

Still, that saves us from having to go and find her.

She stays in our company for long enough to eat then disappears into the TARDIS.

The Doctor and I navigate the TARDIS into orbit around a brown dwarf and I leave the console room to watch TV in my bedroom. The TARDIS manages to drag together an ancient signal which turns out to be an entertainment show from the Judoon home world. I get changed into some loose trousers for sleeping then sprawl onto my front on my bed to watch.

'What are you watching?' I knew he wouldn't leave me alone for long.

I ignore him and stay as I am. He sits down beside me and we watch in silence for a while.

I jump violently and recoil when the Doctor touches the bare skin on the right side of my back.

'Sorry!' he pulls back his hand and I shoot him a disgruntled and confused look as I sit up to face him. 'It's,' he looks a little wild around the eyes, 'healing well?!'

'You can see that it is,' I tell him shortly; disgruntled takes over from confused.

'Right,' he nods, eyes still wide, 'good.'

His gaze drops to the entry wound, his expression is pained and he can't seem to look away. I rub at it self-consciously, knocking the stitches, and drop my own gaze away.

'Doctor,' I snap finally, 'I'm fine. Definitely not about to die. Now stop staring at me.'

'Just,' the appealing is back, 'please be careful. I don't want to be the only one anymore.'

Not awkward at all.

'Right,' I scowl, but there's little feeling behind it. 'I'm going to bed now; get out of my room.'

'You don't want me to…?'

'No,' I cut him off. 'Thank you.'

He nods and glances back at me as he leaves.

I sigh and rub my hands through my hair. Another sleepless night ahead for me.

I spend the night letting the TARDIS pick out random entertainment for me. When a suitably long period of time has past I return to the console room and start fiddling with things.

The TARDIS picks out some beat heavy music for me and turns the volume right up. With that pounding in my head I do get a brief nap after completing some minor maintenance and then wake again with a gasp.

I feel the TARDIS hum sympathetically in my mind and the volume of the music rises again. I pat the console and look for any other jobs that I can do to make her happy.

'Good morning!' the Doctor shouts over the music and I look up to see him picking his way around to me. He hands me some breakfast.

Repressing my desire for the drums is going to be hard.


	12. Chapter 12

AN Adding two chapters today :)

* * *

The next couple of dozen days are variations of the same theme.

We pick a planet at random, we start out wandering all together, Jenny eventually disappears leaving me with the Doctor and we somehow manage not to incur the wrath of any natives.

I manage to catch maybe an hour of sleep a night, which is an improvement, but doesn't stop the Doctor giving me worried looks and hovering around be incessantly.

On the bright side my shoulder no longer bothers me.

On one of my early morning nothing-else-to-do sessions in the console room I hear a phone ringing. It's tucked under the panel for the shields and when I fish it out there's a picture of Martha Jones on the display.

I hesitate then answer,

'The Doctor's phone.'

'Err, who's this?'

My mind goes blank,

'Why?'

'Look, is the Doctor there please?'

'He's…' I begin but stop as the Doctor enters the room. 'Doctor, Martha Jones for you.'

'Oh,' he hesitates.

I shove the phone into his hand.

'Hello Martha,' he sounds happy enough now. 'Yes, I've regenerated.

'Err, well… that was the Master.'

I smirk as he pulls the phone away from his ear and away from the sudden yelling. He waits for it to subside a little before interjecting,

'I'm fine, Martha, we're doing fine. Oh, Martha, he found Jenny! Can you believe it?

'I promise I'm fine.

'We're just travelling, you know how it is.

'Sure, one day.

'No, I mean it.

'Ok; I promise.

'Bye then.'

He ends the call and takes the battery out of the phone, shooting a challenging look at me as he does so.

'Sorry,' I scowl a little in confusion, 'I thought you liked that one.'

'They won't understand about you and I can't ask them to,' he shrugs and busies himself at the console.

'They have more sense than you,' I shrug in turn.

'Do you not what me to trust you?' he's irritated now.

'I hope that you can,' I mutter.

Then his hands are either side of my face and his mind presses against mine forcefully. I lash out at him mentally but he doesn't let go and before I can gather myself for a better thought out defence he plays dirty; he projects his heartbeats at me, as he did before, and I physically sway toward him with a sigh.

'Sorry,' he whispers as his mental presence settles beside mine.

It is impossible to maintain any form of irritation toward him when I have that divine rhythm sounding in my head. My eyes have closed and can feel his breaths against my face as he gently rummages though my mind.

He starts to pull away,

'No!' I gasp and clutch at him desperately.

'Sorry,' he repeats and his mental presence is gone along with the beats.

I let out a whine and find myself panting as I feel more like myself again.

'You,' I gasp and stagger backward to collapse against the console, 'are a complete… and utter… you are an arsehole.'

'Yeah,' he kneels beside me, not touching, 'but I can trust you.'

I close my eyes and drop my head back.

'But you aren't sleeping, I told you to tell me if…'

'After what you just proved I'll do if offered the drums,' I interrupt, 'you're surprised I want to break the habit?'

'After proving how vulnerable you are if offered the drums, I don't understand why you wouldn't consider getting your dose from someone who wants nothing in return.'

'That's a terrible idea,' I dismiss.

He sits down beside me and nudges me with his shoulder,

'I didn't say it wasn't. I just wondered why you hadn't even considered it.'

'You just strolled through that part of my mind. You know why.'

'You think I'm better than you.'

'You are.'

'I'm really not.'

'I would glare at you,' I sniff, 'but I have a splitting headache.'

'Would you like some tea?'

I open my mouth to reply, but I just giggle. Soon we're both giggling helplessly.

I gasp to get my breath back and squint my eyes open. It doesn't hurt too badly. The Doctor's smiling at me affectionately, I offer him a glare in return.

'Sorry about your head,' his head tips to one side as he looks at me. 'But I kind of needed to be sure.'

'You cheated,' I tell him. 'The drums? Really? Very underhanded.'

'I thought you'd approve of underhanded,' he grins.

'You're meant to be the good one,' I scold then lever myself to my feet using his shoulder. 'I need a drink. See you around.'


	13. Chapter 13

The Doctor lets me avoid him for the rest of that day and the one after it, which is good; I'm not sure I'd have been able to stop myself from begging for more drum substitutes right away. When I do see him again the feeling is more there-if-I-need-them than give-them-to-me-right-now.

He beams at me,

'Beach time! Do you want to come?'

I stare at him for a moment then shrug,

'Alright,' I agree and join him at the controls.

Jenny arrives beside us as the TARDIS materialises wearing a pink bikini and a large white sunhat,

'Hello,' she smiles at me then scowls at us both, 'you can't wear that to the beach! I'll see you outside.'

Seeing as she does have a point I change into swimming trucks and a t-shirt and the Doctor reappears in a t-shirt rather than his jacket, shirt and bow-tie. I've taken a book from the library and fall in step with him as we step into the sunshine.

'I haven't been to Barbados for at least a century!' the Doctor exclaims.

'I have never been to this planet,' I glance around at all the beings who all seem to be making some effort to be cooked alive while sipping over priced tiny drinks.

'You'll burn if you don't wear a hat,' Jenny scolds from a near by deckchair.

'Time Lords don't burn,' I reply and claim the lounger two down from her, leaving the Doctor to take the one in the middle.

'Really?' she asks and I leave the Doctor to field that as I remove my t-shirt and settle to read my book.

I wonder how long the Doctor will manage to sit still for.

'Master?'

Not long.

'No.'

This confuses him for a moment.

'You don't even know what I was going to say!'

'Probably something that would require me to meet natives.'

'Nobody is native to Barbados; it was terraformed.'

'When I say natives you can imagine I've said stunted apes.'

'Right. Look! A submarine ride to the crystal caves!'

'We could take the TARDIS,' Jenny sounds interested.

'But then we wouldn't meet anyone,' the Doctor replies, sounding truly baffled.

'I don't generally do very well when meeting new people,' I point out without looking up from my book.

'Oh, come on,' he pleads. 'The last time I got onto a tiny craft to visit somewhere pretty I nearly got thrown onto the surface of Midnight!'

'Sorry, Dad,' she doesn't sound sorry, 'I'm going scuba-diving.' I glance up and she her eyeing the instructors for that activity.

'It's all on you then,' he turns to me with a faint pout.

I glare at him,

'This is ridiculous. They're not going to throw you out of an airlock, and even if they wanted to how will me being there stop them?'

'Would you let them?'

'Right now I might,' I mutter. 'Whatever. I'll read my book on the ride.'

'Perfect!' he beams at me.

I'm going to have to work on being able to say no to him, or if I even want to.

'I'll go check when the next departure is,' he bounds off across the sand.

Jenny turns to me as I'm watching him in mild horror as he bounces away,

'You like him.'

'What?'

'Don't give me that,' she scowls.

'He thinks I like you,' distraction might work.

'He's an idiot.'

'I whole-heartedly agree.'

'You do though! You bicker all the time but neither of you mean it; you really like him!'

'Alright,' I scoff, 'so what if I do? Half the Universe loves him, adding me to that list is…' whoops.

'You love him!' she interrupts, eyes wide. She beams at me, 'I knew it! You have to tell him.'

I glare at her and it makes no notable difference,

'No.'

Thankfully the Doctor reappears at this point, dressed back into his full suit. He looks ready to cajole me into leaving immediately and looks surprised when I practically jump to his side. I spare Jenny a final glare as we walk away and she smirks at me.

I put my t-shirt back on as we wait in the queue for the excursion.

'Hello and welcome to the Blue Bird Inc excursion to the Crystal Caves, can I take your names please?' a short canine greets us with a clipboard.

'I'm the Doctor, good to meet you,' he beams. 'This is the Master.'

Our host makes no comment on our names other than to make a note on the clipboard and usher us aboard.

I grab a window seat at the back as the Doctor goes to _mingle_. I briefly pay attention as we set off to the announcement that it will take us two hours to reach the caves and that there's a tablet with every seat that will help us identify anything we see out of the windows. I retreat into my book.

Some time later the sound of my name recalls me to the outside world,

'…Master, I sort of forced him to come with me,' the Doctor tells another passenger. He smiles when I meet his gaze.

'You didn't want to see the most spectacular crystal formations in this quadrant?' the other passenger asks.

'Not particularly,' I reply flatly. 'I'm only here in case someone decides to push him out the airlock.'

The passenger looks at me strangely.

'Doctor,' I swap to Gallifreyan, 'how do you put up with these people?'

'I'm just being friendly,' he scolds.

'Right,' I try to return to my book.

'That was an interesting language you were speaking just now,' a head appears from the seat in front of me. 'I'm something of a linguist but I didn't recognise it at all.'

I glance at the Doctor but his attention is elsewhere.

'It's very old,' is what I settle on.

'Really? Where did it originate?'

'Gallifrey,' I tell him shortly.

'How strange! I've never heard of it,' I wince a little at the thought of Gallifrey truly being gone.

'It's been gone a long time now,' I push an expression of grief onto my face to discourage conversation. 'A very long time.'

He makes a soft noise in his throat,

'I'm sorry,' and to my relief he turns away.

I'm returning to my book when the Doctor drops into the seat beside me and leans across to look out the window,

'Look, a sea serpent,' he points, speaking Gallifreyan as has become habit between us.

'Fascinating,' I glare at the back of his head as my hand twitches to reach of him as claim the drums from his head.

He drops back into his seat and his grin falters a little,

'Would you rather be back at the beach?'

Not particularly if you weren't there.

'I would like to read this book,' I gesture with it.

'Sorry, I'll be quiet,' he tells me. 'Oh, look, that squid is huge!'

I give up and close my book as I look out the window. He's right. The squid is huge.

'Yes, hopefully it won't eat us,' I deadpan.

He grins and I sway toward him before flinching back with a scowl. He looks briefly confused then utterly apologetic.

'Don't,' I cut him off. 'You did what you had to.'

He sighs,

'If I found I couldn't trust you I'd agree. I thought the offer of the drums would… bring you round?'

I grimace at the thought of him expecting to need to control me and having a plan to do just that.

'But you're being honest,' he continues, 'so I've hurt you for no reason.'

He raises a hand and I jerk as far away from him as I can,

'Please don't,' I beg before my mind catches up with me.

Hurt flashes across his face and the hand, which was clearly not going anywhere near my head, drops back to his lap.

'Sorry,' he murmurs and stands to leave me alone. 'I'll just…'

I close my eyes and take a deep breath.

An embarrassing over reaction; this is the Doctor, he wouldn't do that again now he knows there's no need. Besides, after everything I have done it would be his right.

When I look I see him sitting alone in an aisle seat two rows ahead of me. Decision made I walk over to him and step over his legs, claiming the window seat once again.

He looks up at me blankly as I sit down. I nod once then curl my legs to my chest and close my eyes.

Naturally I will not sleep, but the show of trust should help things between us.

I shiver and slit my eyes back open when he brushes the backs of his fingers over my leg. I release one arm from around my legs and offer up my hand. He doesn't actually make an audible sound, but from the look on his face he may have whined. He grasps my hand tightly and my eyes slide shut.

* * *

AN I wrote the end of this chapter while... slightly intoxicated... PLEASE tell me of any typos etc.


	14. Chapter 14

I wake with a jolt to find us back at the beach.

'Hey,' the Doctor smiles at me and squeezes my shoulder with the hand he presumably just used to shake me. 'I'd have let you sleep longer but they need us to get off now.'

I stare at him a blankly and rub my eyes.

He steps backward and beckons me,

'Come on.'

'I slept,' I stretch my legs out of my curled-up sleeping position and stagger to my feet.

'For four hours,' he agrees and catches my elbow to steer me.

I shake my head to clear my mind,

'Were the caves any good?'

'They were magnificent,' he beams and we step off the submarine onto the sun backed deck.

'Well, no one tried to kill you,' I point out, retrieving my arm from his grasp.

'No,' he agrees. 'I'm still glad you came.'

'You're unnaturally attached to me,' I tell him.

'You're brilliant,' he tells me again with a grin.

'So you say,' I agree.

The Doctor turns a disapproving but blind eye when I prompt a restaurateur to give us some dinner. We eat sitting on the sand near the water. There's no sign of Jenny, but I can sense she's not that far away.

'Thought experiment,' the Doctor proposes after we've eaten. 'If Jenny meets a human she likes and they… Well, you get the idea. The child would be..?'

I consider it from my stretched out position on the sand,

'Given the information about… River was it? I would say Time Lord if conceived in the Void and probably no child if not.'

'Ok,' he nods, 'and the reverse?'

'Excuse me?'

'If one of us and a human…'

'The thought repulses me. Let's just say you.'

'Fine. If I was to…'

'I don't know,' I interrupt. 'Probably the same, but definitely no child out of the Void. As a Time Lord Jenny could conceivably force the DNA to mesh into a hybrid.'

He hums thoughtfully.

'Are you seriously ok with thinking of your daughter and some ape in your TARDIS having…'

'She's an adult,' he interrupts quickly. 'Near enough.'

I just smirk up at him.

'You're the one that wanted to expand our species,' he points out.

'True,' I agree.

'Have you never wanted a family?' he asks, turning his gaze away from the ocean to look down at me.

When I had the drums I mainly wanted destruction and his attention. I think I know now that the second part was just me. Without the drums… I don't know.

'No,' I tell him. 'The drums kept me busy.'

'And now?' he prompts. 'No desire to extend your father's line?'

I shrug,

'I'm happy enough at the moment.'

He beams,

'I'm glad.'

'Sap,' I mutter. 'Besides, I think you are suppose to _fall in love_ with someone before picking out names.'

Also, I don't say, I'm in love with you. You moron. And I don't think many children would come from that even if you did feel the same way.

'The technology exists,' he shrugs. 'I think I have an incubator in the TARDIS somewhere; we'd just need DNA. But I get your point.'

His response sounds suspiciously like he answered my thoughts but I mentally shake off the paranoia.

'Everything you're saying applies to you too,' I point out. 'I know you loved having a family.'

He smiles sadly, looking back out across the water,

'Well, I have you and Jenny. Maybe some day. I don't know.'

No immediate plans. Good.

'We need to go to Earth,' he says after a while. 'Martha's worried.'

'How terrible,' I tell him dryly. 'If you don't mind I'll be staying onboard for that trip.'

He pouts at me,

'Oh, please?'

I glare at him; on this I am determined to be firm,

'No, Doctor. No.'

He huffs a breath and continues to pout with his chin on his hands.

'Arguing your case with her won't be helped by me being there,' I point out.

'It would if you didn't talk,' he grins.

I shake my head,

'You're such an arse.'

'You love me,' he keeps grinning.

Yes.

'You're deluded. Too much time spent among lower species.'

'Then you should come with me.'

'Take Jenny.'

'Fine. Spoil sport.'

'Why would you even want me there?' I scoff. 'It's a reunion with your pet and a yelling match about whether or not I'm controlling you.'

He shrugs,

'Why did you come with me today?'

I don't reply.

'Because regardless of how we interacted before we're friends now,' he tells me resolutely.

'We are?' I blurt.

'Of course we are.'

How strange.

My bemusement must show on my face as the Doctor's expression softens into something I don't recognise,

'We are.'

And that's apparently the end of it.


	15. Chapter 15

'We need to go somewhere more exciting!' the Doctor declares the next day.

'Excellent!' Jenny pushes aside her breakfast. 'Where are we going?'

'I thought we were going to Earth?' I glance up from my coffee.

'You hare Earth.'

I stare at him.

'Earth was beautiful,' Jenny puts in, 'but it wasn't very exciting.'

'It can be,' I reply, scowling at the Doctor, 'unnaturally often in fact.'

'Ok,' she smiles, 'Earth then?'

'We have a time machine,' he stresses, 'we can go to Earth anytime.'

'But if we go today you can deal with Martha and we'll never have to go again,' I smirk and return my attention to my coffee.

'Well, I have a message from River,' he holds up his scrap of psychic paper.

'Ooo,' Jenny leans forward to read the message, ''Come to Rowen XI' and a kiss! Very exciting.'

He beams,

'Rowen XI it is then! And you'll love River.

'You, umm,' he glances at me. 'Might get along brilliantly or hate each other…'

'Great,' I raise an eyebrow.

Jenny shoots a pointed glance at me before turning back to her father,

'So, Dad, the only female Time Lord you aren't related to!'

I suppress my flinch but do look at him.

He looks embarrassed,

'We did sort of get married once. Though I was in a robot of myself at the time.'

I inhale my coffee.

The Doctor pats me on the back as I try to breathe,

'Are you alright?'

'Fine…' I splutter as Jenny giggles.

'All that talk before about our species and you're married?' I ask as I take the stabiliser in hand and try to reach the shields at the same time.

'It didn't seem important,' he shrugs as he flits between sensors and navigation. 'It wasn't a _real _marriage. Also, I don't know, the first time I met her she died. We keep meeting in the wrong order.'

'But you married her.'

'Not _really_,' he repeats. 'Only so she would see me in the robot and know it was ok to kill me,' he sounds unnecessarily reasonably about the whole thing.

'I won't ask.'

'She doesn't even know my real name,' he adds and throws on the brakes.

I tighten my grip on the stabilisers and we make a relatively smooth landing. The Doctor pats the console and bounds down the stairs and is joined by Jenny by the door. I hesitate before following them; I can sense this new Time Lord just outside.

'Hello Sweetie,' she greets the Doctor with a purr.

'River! Have you met Jenny?' I step out of the door as he turns to look for me, 'and the Master?'

'Oh, yes, we've met,' she smiles at Jenny and smirks at me.

'This introduction will be simpler in a more civilised tongue,' I scowl.

'River and I meet in the wrong order,' he tells me, the Gallifreyan establishes the jumbled time lines. 'We sync calendars as much as possible without… spoilers.'

'A generally useless and pompous language,' River smiles, her own use of language making her opinion clear.

'It's understandable you would have trouble with it, having come from a lower species,' I smile back.

'Oh,' the Doctor looks between us, 'please don't fight.'

'We get along fine,' River replies. 'That he's a murdering psychopath doesn't bother me at all.'

'Ex-murdering psychopath,' I sniff.

'Sorry, what?' Jenny looks confused; the Doctor has clearly not told her about me.

'I'll tell you later,' the Doctor looks uncomfortable and glances at me. 'River, why did you call?'

River's looking apologetic,

'There're some unusual reports from the locals; strange dreams and disappearances. I thought you might have an opinion.'

'That Rowen XI is a bad place for a colony,' I mutter but take a deep sniff to see if I can sense anything. I also tack up an additional layer of mental defence and notice the Doctor flinch as I do. 'Put up your defences,' I scold him.

He leads the way back into the TARDIS and to the console,

'Nothing,' he scowls as he scans the area then looks to me for confirmation.

'At the moment,' I agree.

'The disappearances have all been at night, so have the dreams,' River looks over the readings with us. 'Perhaps it's intermittent.'

'Or the TARDIS just can't detect it,' Jenny suggests.

I walk back outside and lean beside the door as they continue to discuss it.

I no longer feel the urge to… take over. To dominate. But I really don't think I care that much about helping these apes either.

I am only here because the Doctor is here.

And…

Damn.

And I'll look into this with him because it will make him happy.

I'm doomed to a life surrounded by apes with issues.

Super.

'River's going to take us to the family of one of the people who disappeared,' the Doctor declares as he reappears and tugs my sleeve to make me fall instep with him behind the two women.

'Joy,' I mutter.

'Look on the bright side,' he spreads his arms, 'we're not on Earth!'

'I'm ecstatic, trust me,' I smile despite myself and he grins back.

'Any ideas?' he asks as we walk.

'Many,' I tell him. 'Telepathy is likely involved, whether it's sentient or not remains to be seen. The disappearances could be for any number of reasons.'

'These people are unlikely to have developed the technology for telepathy without them all being aware of it.'

'Alien then,' I shrug. 'It was always more likely an outside influence was involved; the population here is several hundred at the most?'

'They are the first wave of colonists,' River confirms. 'More are suppose to come this month, but they've been delayed while we look into this.'

'You're the best of us at…' the Doctor pauses for a nice was to phrase it.

'Telepathically forcing humans to my will?' I suggest dryly.

'…right. Can you sense anything at all?'

'No. I imagine everything has happened at night for a reason. I'll pay attention tonight,' I shrug, 'but until then…'

Jenny is giving me a strange look,

'Who are you, really?'

'I'm the Master,' I tell her with only a slight sneer. 'I am a genius even among Time Lords, driven to distraction by the sound of drums for… too long and, apparently,' I jerk my head toward the Doctor, 'his friend.'

She blinks and looks to her father and River.

'I trust him,' the Doctor tells her firmly, 'and I forgave him. It was my right.'

'Very melodramatic,' I inform him, 'well done.'

'You're…' she glances at River, 'mad?'

'Certainly,' I agree even as the Doctor snaps 'No!'

'Doctor,' I scowl at him, 'of course I am. It just doesn't mean I want to destroy the Universe right now.'

'Mad isn't the right word for what you are,' he pouts.

'We're at the settlement,' River interrupts. 'Shall we continue this later?'

I lag behind at his point; my decision to solve the mystery and help the Doctor does not extend to wishing to hear the ramblings of some distraught ape. The Doctor glances back at me once but continues with no comment when I wave him away.

I'm irritated to find that my anxiety levels increase away from the Doctor and I'm more aware of the lack of drums.

I'll do a lap of the settlement to distract myself; a telepathic survey of the surroundings is probably called for anyway.

Naturally this achieves nothing except to cake my shoes and the cuffs of my black trousers in mud and I arrive back where I started as the sun approaches the horizon.

'There you are,' the Doctor looks relieved and actually goes as far as to brush the edges of my mind for a moment.

'Miss me?' I smirk as I walk to him.

He glances away, and then back,

'I didn't know where you were.' He shakes his head and his smile reappears, 'We didn't really find out anything useful, but we did get fed.'

'I didn't find anything,' I admit. 'No sign of any mental persuasion around the border, but if they're more than five hundred meters out or using a damper of any kind I would probably have just missed them.'

He hums as he contemplates this,

'Are you going to be ok staying up tonight? You must have had quite the slog around the town.'

I huff a breath,

'I don't sleep, remember?'

Unless, apparently, you're there, I don't add.

'Right,' he looks sad.

'Oh, don't fuss,' I sigh.

Thankfully he lets it go.

'Come on,' he nods toward the settlement. 'River and Jenny are setting us up a bit of a base camp in the centre of town.'

Jenny beams as we arrive and River smiles,

'Hello boys, I've just shown Jenny how to work my equipment and I think we're ready.'

I notice that, despite her earlier comments, she speaks Gallifreyan.

'We're expecting a time disturbance?' I look at the read outs of her screens before hopping onto a table.

'People are saying 'disappeared' rather than 'went missing',' she shrugs.

'Earth languages leave a lot to be desired when it comes to clarity,' I tell her.

The Doctor sits beside me,

'We might have quite a wait, if anything even happens tonight at all.'

'I refuse to play a game to pass the time,' I cut in and River laughs.

'I didn't…' he begins.

'I know you,' I cut in again. 'If you're not doing anything you have the attention span of a corrox.'

He pouts at me and I roll my eyes at him.

'I'm going to drop some layer of defence,' I tell him. 'I'll be able to sense anything that happens better. You _do not drop yours_, ok?'

'Sure,' he agrees and I relax my mind.

I shiver at the onslaught of _nothing_ where our people should be and pull my knees to my chest. I close my eyes and drop my head forward to rest as I concentrate.

'Anything?'

'Nothing yet.'

It's nearly midnight before anything happens and then several things happen at once.

I feel a sudden push of _intent_ being directed to somewhere in the town and whip my head up to try and pinpoint it.

The Doctor's sonic starts to whir.

And River apparently detects something too as she jumps to her feet.

They are promptly running out the door tracking whatever it is with the sonic so I follow.

'Somebody teleported down and they're recharging ready to go back,' River calls as we run down silent streets.

They turn right at the next junction, but I skid to a halt as I identify the recipient of the telepathic intent; there's a human stumbling along in the same direct the other three have taken. I walk closer carefully; drawing my laser.

A clumsy form of compulsion, I conclude, after a hesitant probe with my mind. Easily broken, and resistible, as the human shows, even to creatures with no telepathic ability.

I walk with the human round the next corner and find the others standing before a teleport capsule. There's an insectoid inside pointing a blaster at them and chittering angrily. It gestures impatiently at the human beside me but with a mental prompt of my own I over-ride the previous commands and the human stops.

I realise at this point that the Doctor has been speaking with the insect the entire time, apparently telling him that humans are not to be eaten or he'll be angry.

I'm not paying close enough attention or what happens next never would have.

The insect drops all attempts of control over the human and directs a double surge mental attack at the Doctor; who promptly crumples to the floor.

I see read and shoot the insect as he teleports away just as Jenny catches one of his arms. He human beside me screams and runs away and River drops to her knees beside the Doctor.

She reaches a hand toward his head but I push her aside,

'Get away from him,' I snap and sink into his mind to assess the damage.

Very little, it turns out. The Doctor greets me easily enough as he shakes his own mind back into shape. I remain where I am, reassuring myself that he's ok, until he's stretching back into consciousness.

'Hey,' he murmurs and blinks his eyes open.

'Hey,' I smile and sit back on my feet and he pushes himself up.

'Where are River and Jenny?'

'River was just here. Jenny may have teleported with the insect.'

He groans as he regains his feet and I scowl at him,

'Defences, Doctor?' I remind him. 'I did tell you.'

'I didn't think he'd be able to switch targets so quickly,' he admits as he rubs his forehead.

'I'm embarrassed at how hard I found it to bead you,' I cross my arms.

'It's your fault,' he grins. 'I have you to back me up so I don't need to be so guarded.'

The TARDIS materialising behind me stops me from becoming truly outraged by his ridiculous logic. River opens the door,

'Sorry boys; I borrowed her to retrieve Jenny from orbit.'

'Is she ok?' the Doctor hurries aboard and I close the door behind us.

'She's fine; the teleported wasn't up to full power so it dropped them short of the ship. She had a bit of time in a vacuum, but she's alright.'

'Hey, Dad,' she smiles down from the top step. 'I've not had one of my hearts stop before. Very uncomfortable.'

He's up the stairs and hugging her very quickly.

'Tree-ahal was dead before I got there,' River adds.

'Probably because I shot him in the head,' I raise an eyebrow.

The Doctor scowls at me,

'I do wish you wouldn't kill people so casually.'

'I wish you wouldn't put your life at risk to casually,' I scowl back and swiftly leave the console room.

* * *

AN.

A long chapter containing stuff other than dialogue! I hope it comes across ok.

A 'corrox' (I've decided) is the Gallifreyan equivalent of a hamster or a gerbil.

Thanks for all the comments and kudos :-D

~Teri


	16. Chapter 16

I stay in my room the remainder of that night and into the next evening. I try to convince myself, somewhat unsuccessfully, that I'm not sulking.

The TARDIS moves three times while I'm avoiding everyone; the first two are short jumps presumably to finish off any business with the insects and the third is longer and probably puts us in orbit somewhere.

It's another few hours before the Doctor enters my room to find me lying on my bed staring at the ceiling.

'Thank you,' he sits on the bed beside my legs.

'For?'

'Stopping him taking his prisoner. And for making sure I was ok.'

I relax a little,

'No problem.'

He catches hold of my right hand and pulls it away from the headboard,

'I'm not angry with you so please don't be upset.'

'What makes you think I'm upset?' I challenge pointlessly.

'You only even tap out the drums when you're upset,' he tells me calmly and lies down beside me.

I flick my gaze up at the headboard and my hand tightens into a fist.

I was tapping out the drums? I didn't even notice…

'River said you stopped her from doing it,' he swerves back to the main topic. 'From checking on me, I mean.'

I shrug as I glance at him out the corner of my eye, he's staring at the ceiling too,

'I don't know how good she is at mental manipulation. I am very good, as you know.'

'You did kill Tree-ahal,' he adds, 'you didn't need to do that; he was running away.' He sounds disappointed rather than angry which makes me feel better.

'Sorry,' I tell him, not for the kill but for upsetting him, 'I'm just not such a good person as you.'

'You do things differently,' he murmurs. 'I don't think you're really a bad person. You're very loyal really.'

I look over to see his eyes have closed so I poke him in the ribs,

'Oi, are you planning to sleep here?'

'If you don't mind,' he smiles and sits up long enough to remove his jacket, bow-tie and shoes before flopping back down beside me.

I don't know what to do with this information.

'Why?'

'I'm tired.'

I sit up and poke him again as I glare down,

'Your room is right next-door.'

'Does it really bother you?' he blinks up at me.

Stay. Please stay.

'Well, no, I just don't understand.'

'Let's put everything aside and agree that we'll both spend a better night if we're together,' he closes his eyes again.

I stare at him for a while before shrugging to myself, mentally and physically, and turn off the light. The Doctor is asleep in minutes and I settle beside him ready for a long night.

I watch him sleep for several hours before noticing I'm starting to blink more slowly.

On my next blink I must have fallen asleep as I find myself sitting up gasping for breath. My temporal sense telling me several hours have passed.

'Master?' the Doctor rolls toward me without really waking and reaches to grasp my hand.

I lie back down and actually manage to sleep again with his hand in mine.

* * *

I wake again to find him with his head propped on his arms watching me.

'Very not creepy,' I tell him, rubbing my eyes and stretching, 'thanks.'

'Hey,' he ignores me.

I smile despite myself,

'Hey.

'Isn't your wife onboard?' I ask after a moment. 'Shouldn't you be with her?'

He looks embarrassed then raises his chin and looks ridiculous in his defiance,

'I'd rather be here.'

I do not know how to respond to this at all. I settle for giving him a strange look and watching him spin to turn his back to me as I get changed with no warning.

'You're very strange this regeneration, Doctor,' I tell him as he sits on the bed resolutely staring at the wall.

He huffs and starts retrieving his clothing from the floor. I walk around the bed to stand in front of him now I'm dressed. He smiles at me as he ties his bow-tie.

'You actually like me,' it sounds a little questioning, which is irritating.

He glances away then back with a bright smile firmly in place,

'It's good for my ego that you're so willing to protect me.'

I'd die for you.

Or burn the Universe, but I know which you'd prefer.

'Well, I am insane,' I smirk.

'If you say so,' he smiles and squeezes my arm slightly before stepping around me to leave the room.

I follow him quite automatically.


	17. Chapter 17

With four Time Lords at the controls the trip to Earth is actually smooth. We rematerialise near Torchwood so the TARDIS can recharge. River leaves immediately to visit her parents and I disappear into the depths of the TARDIS to avoid the Doctor.

Several hours of tinkering with my now nearly sentient empathic sphere I decide to check on the others. I return to the console room and find I'm still 'home-alone'.

I'll go out and get some fresh air then. I'm not checking on the Doctor.

I close the door to the TARDIS behind me as I open my mind to search for him. He's several miles away with Jenny so I find a bar and open a tab.

I'm on my second glass of champagne when the feeling of wrongness hits me and I know the freak has walked the Doctor to the TARDIS. I feel the TARDIS's similar dislike of him and smirk to myself.

The freak is coming closer now though so I move into a dark booth in the corner just in time for him to arrive through the door with Martha Jones. They're both looking irritated, as though they've lost an argument. I sip my champagne and smirk to myself.

I receive a signalling call from the Doctor who has clearly noticed I'm out. I acknowledge him and allow him the knowledge of where I am. His sudden worry and irritation rushes to me as the humans take their seats.

'…if I can trust his judgment on this,' Martha is saying, presumably meaning me.

'He's deluding himself,' the Freak agrees irritably. 'I don't know what the Master's game is, but I'm betting it won't be pretty.'

'So, what can we do? He's different now, I don't know how to convince him and Jenny isn't helping.'

They drink together in silence for awhile while I soothe the Doctor's hovering presence at the edge of my mind.

'He can't be right, can he?' Martha would seem to still prefer to believe in the Doctor as her personal hero. 'The Master can't really be safe?'

I almost spill my champagne; safe?! What am I, some newly trained pet? I glare at them but stay silent.

Meanwhile the Doctor has given up on trusting the situation and is heading over.

'I don't trust him; he's too powerful.'

The Doctor bursts into the bar and looks around quickly. On spotting me he relaxes a little then attempts to casually join his apes.

'Doctor?' the freak doesn't buy it. 'What's wrong?'

'For the record,' I say from my booth, 'I was quite comfortable letting them finish their drinks and go away.'

The apes flinch, both are on their feet now, and spin to face me. I raise my champagne flute in mock salute and stay lounged in my seat.

'Let's just say I missed you,' the Doctor suggests takes a slightly wide path around them to sit beside me. I offer him my champagne glass and watch in disgust as he takes a sip then spits it onto the floor, 'Yuch!'

Miss Jones, to her slight credit, now looks relatively less convinced of the immediate need to kill me. The freak does not.

'Oh, sit down,' I scold them as I retrieve my glass from the Doctor.

Miss Jones hesitates and glances to the freak before sinking into her seat. She fidgets with her drink as she stares at me.

'I'd rather not,' her companion strikes his crossed-arms hero-pose.

'How are you, Miss Jones?' I smirk as she shivers at my voice, then her eyes flash with anger.

'_Doctor_ Jones,' she corrects and I outright grin.

'Master! Sorry, Martha, he's doing it on purpose. He's not good with…'

'People?' I suggest.

'How are you, then?' she retorts.

'Oh, you know, generally homicidal,' I tell her with a smirk. 'I enjoyed my time as Prime Minister so much.'

She actually smiles a little as the Doctor swats my arm.

'Look, Jack, Martha, he's… well, not harmless, never that, but on my side now! You don't need to worry about us.'

'You need to learn that you don't need to justify yourself to chimps,' I tell him, purposefully using English.

Said chimps both bristle at this but the Doctor beams at points at me meaningfully,

'You see! You're beneath his interest.'

'That we're bugs beneath his magnifying glass does not make me feel better, Doctor,' the freak snaps.

'It should,' I tell him. 'I've outgrown the desire to burn you.'

'Remember when I said it would be helpful if you didn't talk?' the Doctor looses his patience a little.

'It is a perfectly normal and healthy opinion for a Time Lord,' I tell him then sip my champagne and fall obediently silent.

'I still can't believe you can _forgive_ him!' the freak complains.

'It's how we were raised,' the Doctor tells them suddenly. 'I'm really quite strange for our species.'

'Quite?' I question quietly.

'It's like… being a vegetarian and having a friend who eats meat! You think what they're doing is wrong, but you know you're holding yourself to perhaps too high a moral code.'

'Time Lords wouldn't find killing masses of people to be wrong?' Doctor Jones scowls.

'It's frowned upon,' the Doctor shrugs. 'But so is any interaction with a lower species. I mean a _different_ species!'

I laugh at him as the two apes look horrified.

'That came out wrong,' he pushes a hand through his hair.

They start arguing over whether being considered lower life forms is really all that insulting when coming from a Time Lord. I decide to irritate the mixture by irritating the freak.

I lounge back in the booth and drape my arm along the back of the seat. My hand ends up by the Doctor's head. The freak's eyes narrow as I purposely run my fingers through the Doctor's hair.

The Doctor promptly shivers and glances at me, but makes no move to pull away.

Doctor Jones' eyes narrow as well, initially, then widen in realisation. She looks at me questioningly as the Doctor continues to appeal to the freak. I glare at her and accidently drag my nails across the Doctor's scalp a little more firmly causing another full body shiver and a small wave of pleasure to reach me in the form of psychic energy.

The freak looks about ready to snap with tension.

'Jack,' the Doctor continues, 'you know you can trust me.'

'If it means we can leave this pointless planet a little bit sooner,' I add as I'm getting bored, 'he has the ability to control me very completely right at his finger tips. I wouldn't even want to fight him once he got started.'

The Doctor's looking at me as if I just killed his TARDIS, a mixture of pure confusion and devastation,

'What?'

'The drums, Doctor,' I sigh and pull away from him, crossing my arms. 'You can project them with basically no effort and I'd be powerless.'

'I… I wouldn't do that!' he objects angrily and stands out of the booth, putting space between us.

'But you _could_,' I remind him of the point, 'if you needed to.'

He looks overly upset considering I've only told him what we already know and now the freak should be able to be convinced of letting the Doctor leave in peace.

'Could you, Doctor?' the freak asks sounding keen.

'Well, I… yes. Yes, I could,' the Doctor confirms reluctantly.

'Do it,' the freak commands, 'prove it.'

I flinch and look at the Doctor with sudden worry. I crave the drums even as I'm dreading him agreeing to this.

'Don't look at me like that,' the Doctor scowls at me. 'You must have known he'd want this after telling him that.'

Did I? Probably.

I pull my knees to my chest and look away.

'Jack,' Doctor Jones seems to be increasingly on my side as she rests a restraining hand on the freak's arm.

He shrugs her off and switches to his hands-on-hips hero-pose,

'After everything he did,' he spits out, 'you owe me at least this, Doctor.'

'It hurts him,' the Doctor hisses back as if that would be a bad thing to the freak.

They argue back and forth for a time before I interrupt,

'Doctor, just do it.'

'Master…'

'You want to reassure your ape and I want to get off of this planet as soon as possible. Can you just get it over with? There'll be no hard feelings,' my fingers are digging into my legs but I raise my chin.

He looks torn for a second more, then gives in with a final glare at our audience,

'Just for a minute then,' he murmurs. He brushes against my mind, 'sorry…'

I flinch violently as his mind hits into mine and keen softly as the drums sound in my head once more. I clutch at my head and sway forward with a sigh.

I vaguely feel an impact against my ribs that should probably hurt and then there's yelling but I just don't care.

Then they're gone and I groan and grope mentally for the Doctor. He rebuffs me, but gently.

I open my eyes to find myself lying on my left side on the floor. The freak is gone, which is nice, but I have a sharp ache down my right side to go with my delightful headache. I blink up at the Doctor and Doctor Jones as they kneel beside me.

'Hey there,' he greets me and runs a hand through my hair.

'What happened?' I sit up with a groan and hold my side.

'Jack hit you,' the human tells me, sounding angry. 'He's gone now.'

I look at the Doctor reproachfully. I trusted him!

'Sorry,' he pulls me to him, resting his chin on my head as I slump against his chest. 'He moved quickly and I really wasn't expecting him to… Anyway, I'm sorry.'

'He didn't break anything,' she adds. 'I think he wanted to make sure you weren't faking more than anything.'

'Martha slapped him,' the Doctor adds, 'properly; right across the face. Then I dragged him out of the bar and sent him home.'

'Well, as long as he's happy now,' I attempt to sneer then press my face against the Doctor's clavicle. The reawakened cravings crashing over me are exhausting.

'Doctor,' the human looks strangely worried, 'you should get him something to eat. What's good for a Time Lord in shock?'

'Wotsits,' I pull away from him to sit under my own power.

'Right,' he agrees and leaps towards the bar.

I eye the human warily as I lever myself back onto my seat but she keeps her distance. She glances once over her shoulder and I tense in readiness as she turns back; I pull what remains of my mental abilities to readiness.

'You love him,' she states softly, 'and he has no idea.'

'He's an idiot,' I relax slightly, 'thankfully.'

Though clearly I need to work on my poker face if every passing female is going to start noticing my distraction.

'You really are different,' she still sounds guarded. 'Please don't hurt him. You have more power over him than Jack realises.'

'I can't hurt him,' I winch and close my eyes briefly as another craving wave hits me.

She scowls,

'You know you…' she starts to argue.

'Oh, I know how I could,' I interrupt before she can raise her voice to a pitch that would be more irritating. 'I know all his weaknesses. I find I don't want to anymore.'

Why the hell am I telling her this and where is the Doctor with my damn wotsits?

I put extra effort into unscrambling my mind.

'Here you go,' the Doctor finally reappears, dropping the pack in the table in front of me and resting his fingers to my temple as he brushes my mind in quick assessment.

I nod once in acknowledgment and start eating. I flinch and glare at my companion as he probes deeper into my mind than I'd prefer.

'Sorry,' he murmurs softly as his investigation turns soothing and then disappears altogether as his hand drops to my shoulder.

'I need to get back to London,' the human stands to leave. 'Don't be a stranger, ok?'

The Doctor smiles at her,

'Goodbye again, Doctor Jones.'

She smiles wider,

'Goodbye Mister Smith.'


	18. Chapter 18

AN. Second chapter of the night :-)

* * *

That night we stay parked on Earth as Jenny isn't onboard.

The Doctor and I go our separate ways within the TARDIS once we return and I settle myself in the library for a long night of resisting cravings.

Several hours later I'm shivering and standing at the Doctor's door.

Tonight I'm honestly not sure if I'm craving the drums or just some company. Either way what I want is just behind this door.

With a far degree of self-loathing I push open the door and slip inside.

The Doctor is fast asleep, sprawled on one side of his bed with one arm hanging over the edge. I sit down on the floor beside him, resting sideways against the bed, and rest my head on my knees.

I reach out very carefully with my mind and brush against the Doctor; he doesn't stir so I gather my own consciousness closely together and rest against him. The relief is instant and I stop shivering with a sigh.

Much later I haven't moved or slept, but am feeling much better, when the Doctor shifts slightly in his sleep. He doesn't wake up but his mental presence stretches before settling back. Basically he performs the mental equivalent of throwing an arm over me before sinking back into a deep sleep.

* * *

In the morning I'm staring unseeingly at the wall across from the bed when the Doctor awakens.

There's a confused pause.

'Good morning?' he props himself up on an elbow.

I look up at him with a slight smile,

'Hello.'

He smiles back, seemingly reflexively, and untangles our minds without actually pulling away,

'Why are you on the floor?'

I give him an amused look,

'Where should I be after breaking into you room and pressing against you mind?'

'Well,' he shrugs, 'the other side of the bed comes to mind.'

Yes, a brilliant plan for my already shattered self-control.

'I wasn't tired.'

He shrugs,

'Ok.'

He looks at me with a slight scowl for a moment,

'Each time I give you the drums your recovery afterwards is worse.'

I look away,

'Yes.'

He sighs,

'How can you crave something that hurts you so much?'

'They were with me for so long,' I murmur. 'Sometimes they were the only things driving me to survive when things got… bad.

'They pushed my ambition towards their own desires and tormented me endlessly. I hated them and loved them. My constant companions; ever reliable. But I don't want them back, never _those _drums. Not now.'

'I don't understand,' he leans closer.

'The drums you give me,' I pause, refusing to look at him. 'They don't _want_ anything. They're just you and it's _glorious_.'

'Master…' his voice sounds a little broken.

'Pure acceptance and comfort, Doctor,' I clutch my hands into my hair, 'all bundled up with a beat I find entirely too compelling.'

I glance up and see him scowling; I recognise a little of his last regeneration in him.

'Rassilon didn't do you any favours, did he?'

'That the reason he never liked me has turned out to be his own fault is of great comfort.'

His mood bounces back and he smiles,

'And now you're here for…?'

'I just wanted some company, I think. Your mind is not as… debilitating as the drums but it's still comforting.'

'I'm here,' I feel the press of his swell of emotions, 'whenever you need me; I'm always here for you.'

'That is distressingly sentimental,' I tell him as I stand to leave. 'See you around.'

With a shiver I settle my mind back into place and walk away.


	19. Chapter 19

The Doctor spends the day showing his daughter around as many of Earth's tourist spots as he can think of. I spend mine trying to convince the TARDIS that the far wing should not be gravitationally 90º from the rest of the ship.

I ultimately loose the argument.

'Your TARDIS has strange ideas,' I step outside and join him on the lip of a giant rock in the middle of a desert, 'even for a 40 Mark 3.'

He grins,

'She's the best.'

'Where's Jenny?'

'Walking the parameter.'

'Why?'

'Because it's beautiful.'

I look out at the view,

'I've seen better.'

He huffs at me,

'You can think lots of things are beautiful.'

'Do you want to know the last thing I did before escaping the Time Lock?' I ask quietly.

He looks confused,

'Sure.'

'One last memory of home,' I sneer and scowl out across the desert. 'I went home. I sat in my field of red grass and I watched the suns rise and set.

'Gallifrey,' I turn back to him. 'Gallifrey was beautiful, Doctor. Nothing here can compare.'

He looks pained for a second then seems to relax,

'You don't blame me?'

Oh.

'Doctor,' I scowl at him, 'it is because of you that Gallifrey is gone, and it was exactly the right thing to do.

'Would you like the memory?' I ask awkwardly after a moment of silence.

'Please,' he whispers.

The transfer only takes a second and I manipulate it subtly so we're watching our planet together.

He sighs softly within our now shared memory and catches hold of my hand as we sit in the grass,

'Thank you.'

'How long,' I ask him as he presses his shoulder against mine, 'since you were home?'

'Hundreds of years,' he replies equally quietly.

We play out the memory in silence.

'Thank you,' he repeats as we return to the physical world.

He sits down on the edge of the rock formation; his legs dangling over the edge. He pats the ground beside him so we end up sitting together in the same way as we watch Earth's lonely sun set.

'You're right,' he murmurs as the rays are dipping below the horizon. 'It doesn't compare.'

'We could add some mass to the local gas giant,' I reply. 'Make this a binary system.'

He smiles,

'Where would we get that much mass?'

'We might have to destroy pretty much everything else in this system. And the next one over.'

His smile widens,

'That's quite a lot of wanton destruction just to give Earth two sunsets.'

'Oh, alright then,' I sigh theatrically, 'it'll just have to cope.'

'If you want dramatic vistas I know I planet that at the correct time you can watch the sun set then the setting of two supernovas.'

'Impressive,' I agree. 'Have you ever watched Exon IV's Red Giant set through the yellow-dust filled air of its southern hemisphere?'

'Yes! Amazing,' he beams at me.

I stretch my arms over my head and drop backwards to watch the stars emerge. The Doctor turns slightly to watch me watching them.

'How do people ever get anything done?' I ask. 'With nothing driving you, why do you keep…? What's the motivation?'

'Everyone has something driving them,' he disagrees. 'You don't have the drums anymore, but you're still moving. Staying still is boring.'

I hum in partial agreement.

Staying still with _you_ is just fine.

'We'll travel the Universe together,' he smiles down at me in my peripheral vision. 'It'll be great. Will you?'

It hadn't occurred to me that he might think I was still planning to leave.

I look him straight in the eye,

'Yes. I'll come with you.'

He leans further into my view of the sky, hovering over me in a way that would have previously made me tense,

'Really?'

I offer him a lopsided smile,

'Really. Doctor, my Lord Doctor, I want to.'

'That's brilliant! We'll go wherever you want, I promise!' he beams at me.

'I don't mind where we go,' I murmur.

He sways forward, checks himself, then leans in again and presses a kiss to my forehead,

'I'm so glad you're here.'

I refuse to let my eyes drop their focus to his lips.

'Compared to being in Rassilon's custardy in the Time Lock… this is a little better,' I smirk at him. 'You'll have to teach me how to win arguments with your TARDIS though.'

His smile becomes a slight smirk,

'What makes you think I've ever been able to win an argument with her?'

'This trip is sounding better by the minute.'

'Don't worry,' he lies down beside me, 'she likes you.'

'Yes,' I agree, 'because I've been catching up on all the maintenance you've been ignoring.'

'That would explain why she doesn't list violently clockwise anymore when we move forward in time,' he sounds surprised.

'Yes,' I reply dryly.

'I would have fixed it,' he defends.

'I'm sure,' I tell him, unconvinced. 'Like you have with the chameleon circuit.'

'That's one example! And I like it like that anyway! Give me another.'

'I can give you three…' my amusement is probably clear in my tone.

'Ah. Well, it's good you're here then.'

The Doctor seems unusually content to be quiet right now so I don't break the silence.

'We should go back in,' he is the first to speak again. 'It will get cold.'

I get to my feet in silent agreement and try to brush some of the dust from my back. Then I notice he's holding his hand up to me expectantly. I take the hint and pull him to his feet.

'Why is there a section of the TARDIS gravitationally at 90º from the rest?' I ask as we head back inside.

'It's 90 now? It used to be 110.'

'There was clearly a reason she was decommissioned,' I pat the TARDIS. 'Also, there was a good reason for you not actually legitimately having a license.'

He pouts,

'We've done alright together.'

I just smirk at him.


	20. Chapter 20

I retreat into the TARDIS leaving the Doctor to wait for his daughter to return. I've been walking for a while before we dematerialise, clearly with only one pilot, and settle somewhere back in time. It still takes me another hour before I find the section of the TARDIS which is twisted.

I stand on the edge of the gravity switch and gaze down the corridor. I can't see anything from here.

I step forward and twist myself violently in the air so I land on my feet on what should be the right wall. If I follow the corridor for long enough there must be something here.

I'm close to giving up when I finally spot a door up ahead on the left. The corridor continues on as featureless as ever after the door so I stop and contemplate it.

Several things to consider:

Lone doors in featureless hallways are nearly never good news.

The TARDIS may have been protecting whatever is in it for a reason.

If she wanted to, she could have made it much harder to find.

I don't think she dislikes me.

The Doctor didn't seem concerned by me knowing about it, or by its existence.

I shrug and open the door.

Oh.

The room looks like an abandoned ballroom, complete with chandelier, but it is clearly being used as a store room.

It is full of things from home. From Gallifrey.

I let the door close behind me as I step forward. This room has clearly not been organised by the TARDIS though the Doctor has clearly made some effort towards categorising. There seem to be zones for clothing, which seems to be _mostly_ hung-up, technology and artwork, but between these three piles are countless other items just dumped on the floor.

I walk further into the room and brush my fingers against a formal robe in my family's colours. I wonder if it's coincidence or design that it is directly beside a robe of the Doctor's family.

I loose sight of the door as I continue to pick my way through the clutter. In one corner of the room the chaos seems not to have taken hold; I move over to it wondering what could have caught the Doctor's attention for long enough for him to have kept that area tidy.

The answer is images. Hundreds of them, thousands even. All holographic images of people from the Doctor's life.

In a rather appalling invasion of privacy I start to flick though them.

His family and his friends; all preserved here. There are more than enough of me, as well, to please my ego.

In a box to the side I find folders of photos of his apes. I'm about to close it again, not interested in them, when I spot my name.

Well, not my name. Harold Saxon.

I open the folder to find all the publicity shots of me as I ran for Prime Minister.

The sentimental idiot actually kept these?

I put it away and move on to the seemingly endless supply of random knick-knacks he's stashed in here.

I'm holding a bottle opener, wondering why he'd ever brought it back here, when his voice makes me jump,

'I used to find things from Gallifrey quite a lot. I kept the bits I liked, but I don't like to see them very often.'

I nod in understanding and place the bottle opener back on the pile. I turn to see him brushing his fingers over the same robe I touched earlier.

'You can have any of it that you want,' he adds earnestly, 'it's wasted here otherwise.'

'No,' I move to stand beside him and gaze around the room again, 'I don't think so.

'Well,' I clarify, 'I'll have another look at the paintings.'

'There are some very good ones,' he smiles. 'I'll let you keep looking; I only came because I knew I owed you an explanation.'

'You don't owe me anything,' I correct him quietly.

He just smiles and leaves.

Twenty minutes later I need to leave.

This is it. The last of Gallifrey.

There are four Time Lords left. Only two of us have ever seen our home planet and the evidence of Gallifrey's existence now fits into one room.

It's too horrifying.

I need to forget it all. Just for a while.

* * *

The Doctor has disappeared by the time I arrive back in the console room. I pilot the TARDIS to a bar station.

I need to expend some energy.

I steal some currency from a passing inhabitant so that when I enter the bar I don't have to pay attention to whether anyone else has any psychic abilities. I order the _something blue _which turns out to have quite the buzz to it.

'Hello, Honey, here for a good time?' a female lounges on the bar beside me.

Mostly human but with metallic tones just under her skin.

I grin a little manically; it doesn't appear to put her off,

'Something like that.'

'Want me to join you?'

'I could be dangerous to be around,' I scold her with a smirk. Playing with lower races is fun even if I won't go as far as I used to.

'I'll be careful,' she steps closer.

I straighten my back and look down at her without lowering my chin. The buzz from this drink is wonderfully intoxicating.

'Ok,' I nod finally, 'we have a deal.'

* * *

It's mid-morning before the Doctor tracks me down; we've swapped bars several times during the night.

'Doctor!' I call to him. 'You can go now. How much do I owe you?'

'Six eighty,' she smiles up at me, then sashays away with her payment.

The Doctor gives me a bemused look,

'You actually paid her?'

'Stolen money,' I shrug. 'And she did her job well.

'Have an orange drink.'

'Are you high?' he smiles and peers into my eyes.

'Yes,' I step close to him.

'Magnificent,' he laughs.

I gaze at the reflection of my blown pupils in his eyes.

'What were you thinking?'

I wrap my arms around his neck and lean back from him from the hips. He places his hands on my hips.

He has pretty eyes.

'You have pretty eyes.'

'Thank you,' he smiles. 'What flavour is the orange?'

'Blueberry,' I take the glass from the bar and take a sip.

Oh, it's his. I hand it to him.

'Not bad. That's not what you've been drinking though?'

'The blue has the narcotics,' I run a hand through his hair. 'You don't like drugs.'

I sway forward and rest against his chest.

'I don't,' he agrees. 'And you should really know better, Master.'

I press my nose into his neck and relax with a sigh.

'Come on home before you fall asleep,' I can feel his voice vibrating in his neck.

'Home is gone,' I tell him as he tightens his grip on me.

'The TARDIS is home now,' he tells me. 'Where your hat is and all…'

I open my eyes as I fall backwards onto a bed,

'Oh.'

'You're heavy,' he looks down at me.

I let my arms drop from his neck,

'This is my room,' I let him know.

'Yes,' he agrees and pulls off my shoes. 'When you're sober I think we need to have a chat.'

I stare at his head,

'Your hair is wrong.'

'You keep playing with it.'

I keep staring.

He pats my leg,

'You're lucky I love you.'

I shift my gaze to his lips as he talks. What he's saying is probably important. He's important. He's…

My brain is tired.

I close my eyes.

I sit up with a jerk, gasping for air.

'Hello sleepy head,' a voice sounds from behind me.

I spin to face it.

'Hey, it's just me,' the Doctor holds up his hands. He's leaning against my headboard with his legs stretched out along the bed.

'Hello,' is apparently all I can manage.

'You're quite sweet when you're high,' he smiles.

Oh no.

'Is there anyway I can convince you to let me remove those memories?'

He grins and jumps off the bed, heading for the door,

'No.'

The door closes behind him and I can't help smiling.

* * *

AN

I'm not convinced on this chapter. I couldn't really get it how I wanted. But I can't really remember how I wanted it...

Anyway. Now marks the point where what I am uploading will become less and less what I have written on paper. I do like what I have written, but I think it can be better if I diverge at this point.

Hope you like it.


	21. Chapter 21

AN. Ok, sorry, This is barely more than a drabble and I should have tagged it onto the end of the last chapter..

* * *

'I used up your detox supply,' I tell the Doctor as I join him in the console room, my hair still damp from my shower.

'You feel ok?' he looks concerned.

'Just a precaution,' I dismiss.

'Didn't trust your wingman?' he asks.

'I didn't tell her I was a Time Lord so she didn't really have all the appropriate information,' I reply and fiddle with the controls.

'I'm surprised you hired one at all, to be honest.'

'Easiest way to be left alone.'

'Jenny thought you'd hired a…' he gropes for a nice way to put it.

'Prostitute?' I save him and make him squirm with a single word. 'That's disgusting.'

'People have needs,' he glances at me then back to the console; basically giving me his blessing.

'I'm fine,' I wrinkle my nose at him.

'Good,' he sounds bizarrely relieved.

'Right…' I shake off the conversation and turn to leave.

'Master,' he touches my arm as I pass him so I pause. 'Can you not do that again, please?'

'Get high?'

'Disappear. I had no idea where you'd gone.'

Sentimental idiot.

'I'll remember to leave a note,' I smirk and continue out of the room.


	22. Chapter 22

For the next few days the Doctor insists on taking his daughter to a selection of the more touristy parts of the Universe.

While he's pretending not to notice I show her how to prompt people into giving her things. She's competent but not gifted.

Good enough that on our next stop she goes on a three day shopping trip.

I refuse all offers to go with her after the first morning and the Doctor throws in the metaphoric towel on the second afternoon.

I look up from adjusting the power settings on my laser rifle when he joins me looking a little strained.

'Have fun?' I smirk up at him.

He looks at the workbench where I'm working, then slides down the opposite wall next to my bed,

'I'm exhausted!'

'There there, it's all better now,' I coo mockingly as I return my attention to my work.

'It is!' he agrees a little manically, making me glance over again. 'I'm no longer laden down like a pack animal watching my daughter con every shop in this city into giving her free merchandise!'

I laugh. An honest to anything happy laugh, even if it is a little bit caused by my companion's suffering. But he grins too, after a moment,

'This is all your fault.'

'She's your daughter,' I dismiss.

'Yes, and apparently you're the favourite uncle who's a bad influence!'

'She gets her ability to judge character from you,' I tell him as I lock off the settings on my gun.

'She does,' he agrees, smiling up at me.

I give him a look then sight down the gun.

'I don't like guns,' he scowls at it.

'I don't like humans,' I tell him. 'You'll be surprised how much you can abide if you put your mind to it.'

'They're really a very impressive species,' he defends them automatically.

I put the rifle aside and pick up my empathic sphere. It chirps happily at the attention.

'That they manage to breed with everything in the galaxy and are constantly getting places where they have no business does not make them impressive.'

'Oh, but the things they'll do for each other!' the Doctor smiles. 'You must have learnt not to underestimate them by now.'

'You don't like humans, do you?' I murmur to the sphere as I remove its brain so I can transport it into a case that will be able to move. It hums in response which I choose to take as agreement.

'Who's this then?' the Doctor gets up and steps closer.

'Side project,' I tell him as I disconnect some wires carefully. 'Keeps me company.'

'I had a robot dog that called me master,' he tells me.

The sphere squeaks unhappily as I jolt one of its connections. I apologise swiftly to it then stare at the Doctor,

'It called you master?'

'Umm, yes. He was a good dog.'

'Right…'

'Do you want to play a game?'

'No.'

* * *

The Doctor gets bored after a while and wanders off leaving me to set up my sphere in a rolling chassis.

It promptly spends the next half an hour rolling crazily into walls and furniture while making an excited squealing noise.

I spend the same half an hour laughing.

I leave when it settles under the bed and seems to sleep.

At least one of us can, I suppose.

The Doctor is fiddling with things under the main console and I lean over the railing to look at him,

'Do you want to get out of here?' I ask.

He looks up in surprise,

'What do you want to do?'

'I want to study human DNA the next time we're in the Void. I need some components to be able to take all the readings I want.'

'You can't experiment on humans!' he objects.

I roll my eyes,

'That's why I said DNA; that's teeny tiny _bits_ of human.'

He doesn't look entirely convinced.

'Doctor,' I come down the stairs so we're facing each other, 'it's just a curiosity. I'm not planning to kidnap anyone or create clones or mutants. Just looking at cells.'

'Well…'

'You can't say you aren't curious too,' I scowl.

'Alright, alright…' he gives in. 'Let's go.'

* * *

We walk together though the shopping district, not really talking but together.

He picks up seemingly random components from the stalls as we walk around; some he purchases but I can't guess what he plans to do with them.

I find the three things I needed for my DNA experiment and one other thing for the TARDIS.

'Do you have your laser on you?' he asks suddenly as we're heading back.

'Yes,' I glance at him. 'Do you need it?'

'No, I just wondered if you were armed.'

'I, unlike you, am not blind to the scum of the Universe,' I tell him.

'You, unlike me, are paranoid,' he beams at me.

'It's not paranoia if they really are out to get you,' I shrug.

He just laughs at me.

'Dad!' a familiar voice calls from behind us.

'Jenny,' he beams at her then eyes her bulging shopping bags nervously.

I'm ignoring the bags in favour of eyeing the cat who's carrying even more bags for her.

'This is Carl,' she indicates him with a tip of her head.

'Lovely to meet you,' the Doctor shakes his paw. 'I'm the Doctor.'

I leave my hands in my pockets and don't step closer,

'Charmed,' I say with no inflection.

'Don't mind him,' the Doctor says quickly, 'he's…'

'A psychopath,' I beam manically.

'…had bad experiences with new people,' he continues and scowls at me.

The cat is a little wide eyed and his ears have flattened back against his head. Jenny scowls at us both and links their arms,

'Don't mind them,' she smiles at him.

'It's nice to meet you,' he doesn't sound convinced, but then Jenny's towing him away.

'I'll be home later,' she waves a hand. 'Bye Dad, bye Master!'

I grin at the Doctor as soon as they've turned a corner,

'Aww, grandkittens in your future, Doctor!'

He tried to scowl at me, but I can see the thought appeals.

'And if she has litters the population will certainly leap up nicely,' my grin widens.

'A Cat-Time Lord hybrid might not even be possible,' he scolds me, 'even if she likes him that way.'

'If she has a baby I'm jumping ship,' I point out as we continue to head for home.

'No, you won't,' he pouts at me.

Probably not.

'A baby! Doctor, please,' I scoff, 'I get little enough sleep as it is.'

He snorts at me,

'The TARDIS is huge. And she'll be only too happy to create a whole new wing for Jenny to keep any baby away from you.

'Who's to say she'd want to stay onboard anyway?'

'Are you trying to convince me you'd let her leave?'

'People have left before.'

'Idiots,' I mutter without thinking.

He beams at me.


	23. Chapter 23

I wake with a jolt and find myself sprawled on the ground in an alley.

I don't remember how I got here but my temporal sense tells me that it's been six hours since my memory stopped in the market.

Why do things like this always happen around the Doctor?

I cautiously lower some defences.

Anything capable of affecting the mind of a Time Lord is probably mentally competent.

I slam my shields back up and collapse against the wall of the alley. I take a large gulp of air to steady myself.

It doesn't work.

He'd gone.

I can feel the TARDIS, but no Doctor.

I run towards the TARDIS.

My TARDIS.

No!

Please…

* * *

_Doctor's POV_

'Please!' I appeal to them again. 'You have to let me go to him.'

One of them glances at me briefly, but returns his attention to his instruments.

I try again to break through the mental interference.

Nothing.

'He'll think I'm dead!' I yell at them desperately though the bars.

'That's the point!' the leader finally turns to me. 'We get a fully functional Time Lord to study and the defective one is left behind, too heartbroken to come up with a plan to find us.'

'You don't understand what you've done…' I groan.

'Enlighten me,' he smirks.

'He's the Master!' I grip the bars tightly. 'Yes, he's unstable. Do you know what's kept him stable recently?'

'Oh?' he smiles, only humouring me.

'Me! I'm the only thing left that he can rely on! You have to let me go before it's too late!'

'We're leaving this planet in the next half an hour,' he mocks me. 'Anything he does will not be to us.'

'How do you even have this technology?!' he seems happy to tell me his plans, I may as well keep him talking. 'How do you have the exact correct technology to do this and how did you know we'd be here?'

'You aren't the only time travellers in the Universe,' he sneers. 'And once you know what to look for tracking the only TARDIS left is pathetically simple.'

I really need to fix those shields.

'We escaped New Earth eventually,' he sneers, pacing now. 'But I've always remembered my mother telling me it was your fault we didn't before. Your fault my father died!'

'I'm so sorry,' I beg him. 'I tried to help. I did try…'

'Don't lie to me!' he screams and a shock runs through the bars into me and pressing me into unconsciousness.

* * *

_Master's POV_

Nothing.

Another desperate scan with everything the TARDIS has.

I've found Jenny. She's still in the market. I haven't sent her a message.

I can't find him though. His life signs vanished hours ago.

I sit down heavily against the console. A sob shakes me and I clench my fists into my hair.

This planet will **burn**.

I scream and leave the TARDIS again. I can feel tears running down my face. I turn on the spot and scream my rage.

His body.

I'm going to find his body then I'm going to send their star supernova. I'll ride the shockwave across the galaxy and do the same again.

I'll burn this Universe and the next.

* * *

There was a time when killing crowds of humans was so very satisfying.

Perhaps one day it will be again.

I can smell where I walked with the Doctor before. I'll follow the trail and it will surely lead to him. And the people who killed him.

Ah. Resistance.

A troop of soldiers approaching me, guns drawn.

I throw waves of my pain into their minds before killing them.

There's a siren sounding. I must being going the right way.

* * *

It's when I start hypnotising some of the soldiers to work for me that the rest get really scared.

I stride though the streets as my little troop blow things up around me.

Avenging God is a good look on me.

I roll out another wave of death on those in front of me.

'Master!' I tense at the sound of my name.

I turn around and realise I've probably been tapping the drums against my leg since we lost contact.

The Doctor is running towards me.

I still can't feel him.

'Doctor?' my voice sounds weak.

'They blocked me,' he steps right up to me but I jerk backwards. 'Master? Please; it's ok now. I'm here.'

I'm trembling.

He keeps his hands up where I can see them,

'Lower your defences, ok?' he speaks soothingly. 'Master, love, just drop your shields. You know I won't hurt you.'

Ultimately I cannot refuse him this.

It is him.

I whine and throw my arms around his neck. His defences are low as well so I curl my balled-up mental presence into his mind. He hugs me tightly.

I start sobbing into his chest.

'Hey, shhh,' he coos nonsense to me.

'I'm sorry,' I tell him desperately. 'I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry…'

He presses my face against his chest and muffles my words,

'There's nothing to forgive.'

'I killed…' I start.

'I know. Let's go home.'

I maintain a death grip on his shirt as he starts to tow me towards the TARDIS. He presses a kiss to my temple.

* * *

I don't notice the return trip to the TARDIS.

I just soak up his existence.

He doesn't seem to mind.

We're in his room. I try to regain control of myself but as he meets my gaze I can feel myself teetering on the edge.

He wraps his arms around me again,

'I'm here.'

He's towing me to the bed.

I don't even bother to resist him and curl against his chest once we're lying down.

'There,' he murmurs. 'Sleep, Master, everything will seem better in the morning.'


	24. Chapter 24

AN~ Three chapters for the price of one as 22 was what was holding things up! Sorry for the wait.

* * *

I feel him die as the planet below me burns. My triumph is complete.

I am alone.

The silence is all encompassing.

I scream into the silence.

* * *

I'm sitting in the darkness. His still, cold and silent corpse beside me.

I shake him desperately.

Nothing.

* * *

I sit up violently, gasping for breath.

I lunge back at my companion,

'Doctor? Please…' my voice breaks.

Total relief as he sits up jerkily,

'Master?' the barriers which went up, for whatever reason, while we were sleeping drop.

I'm not alone.

I wrap my arms around his neck and find myself once again sobbing against his neck. He returns the hug and rubs my back under my jacket. I feel his mental presence flex a little.

'Oh,' he's realised what happened. 'I'm so sorry. I'm right here; it's ok.'

He coos to me until I calm down,

'You're still shaking,' he murmurs as I pull back.

I drop my hands to my lap as he wipes my cheeks with his thumbs, framing my face with his hands. I realise I'm sitting in his lap.

'I'm…' I clear my throat, 'really glad you're not dead.'

I kiss him back, clutching his shirt.

Wait. He's kissing me?

The image of him suddenly leaning towards me and pressing his lips to mine washes over me. My lack of response almost leads him to pull away, but I catch him in time.

The kiss is desperate. I will only let this happen once so it may as well be good. His hands drop from my face to rub down my back, pushing my jacket off as he goes. I latch back onto him once my arms are free.

His hands stop at the hem of my trousers and he rubs circles on my hip bones.

'Doctor…' I pull back a little, pressing my hands to his chest, to put a stop to this.

'Hmm?' he's watching my mouth, but glances up to my eyes looking ridiculously earnest while his pupils are blown.

I almost sway back to him.

'Let me go,' it comes out as a whisper.

He scowls and doesn't move.

'Let go!' desperate this time and I scramble backwards several feet when his hands drop from me.

He's confused,

'I'm… I thought you…?' his expression shatters into devastated realisation. 'Master, I'm so sorry. I thought we… I thought we felt the same.'

I shiver.

Make or break.

Lie to him and flee. Protect him from everything I am.

Or claim everything I want from him and hope it doesn't self-destruct too soon.

I refuse to cry in front of him again.

We stare at each other as time passes us by.

Very slowly, watching me closely the entire time, he bridges the gap. He cups my cheek and presses a gentle kiss to the corner of my lips. My eyes slide shut.

I haven't decided yet.

'Master? What's wrong?' his breath brushes my neck as he rests his temple against mine.

'I haven't decided,' my voice is steady.

I shiver again as he runs a hand through my hair.

'You like this,' he doesn't sound quite sure.

I slot up mental barriers, closing myself off.

He pulls back and shakes me gently. I open my eyes to see him scowling at me,

'What are you doing?'

'Leaving,' I choke out.

His eyes go wide and his gip on my shoulders tightens,

'No.'

'You said you wouldn't stop me.'

'You said you'd stay.'

'We,' I gesture between us, 'are an exceptionally bad idea.'

His scowl returns,

'_We _haven't been tried yet.'

'It's a bad idea,' I repeat.

'I don't see how,' he's unbelievably stubborn.

'Because if I get any more dependant on you I think it might destroy me!' I snap at him; it has little effect.

'I think it would destroy you more to be alone again,' he lets his arms drop from me and sits back.

His defences go up and I flinch. I glare as he shoots me a meaningful look.

'We're good for each other,' he insists and gets off the bed.

'Where are you going?'

'Why do you care?' he steps out of the room.

I stare at the now closed door.

The silence is deafening.


	25. Chapter 25

AN~ This is edited to lower the rating to acceptable standards for FF (or what I understand them to mean). The full version of this chapter is on archieveofourown but there isn't much missing.

* * *

I tap beats against my temple to calm myself down; he's not dead, he's just shielding.

He's just outside.

I'm not alone.

I curl my knees to my chest as I lie on the bed and keep tapping.

One two three four. One two three four. One two threefour. One twothreefour. Onetwothreefour. Onetwothreefour. Onetwothreefouronetwothreefo ur…

My breathing is harsh pants now. There's nothing. He's… I can't…

I can't. I drop my defences and send out a directionless plea for him to return.

If he isn't there this will destroy me.

He's beside me in a moment,

'Stubborn idiot,' he pulls me against his chest as his defences drop. 'Why didn't you just come after me?'

'What if you weren't there?' I choke against neck as I grab fistfuls of his shirt.

He winces and curls his mind around mine; I can't tell if the gesture is protective or possessive.

'I'm sorry,' he offers.

'You win,' I sigh. 'I can't leave.'

I notice I'm tapping the drums against his chest now.

I don't stop and he doesn't ask me to.

He leans back a little so that he can look at me; I lift my head from his chest and we're practically nose to nose,

'I'm going to kiss you now, if that's ok…'

I close my eyes but turn my face away. He sighs and presses a kiss to my cheek,

'Our minds are wrapped together, how can kissing be too intimate for you?'

He does have a point.

He watches me turn back and then closes the gap between us. This kiss starts as sweet as our first was desperate. More careful, but more full of feeling.

Our minds mesh at the edges rather than just pressing together.

It's glorious.

I thread my fingers into his hair and straddle his thighs, which makes him gasp and clutch his fingers into my back.

'Please…' I whisper as his hands find their way under my shirt and he drags a blunt nail down my spine.

'What…' he swallows heavily as I press my face into his neck, 'what do you want?'

'Doctor…' I moan his name then clamp my mouth shut.

'Master,' he keeps marking my neck. 'Master, do you want to…?'

I don't feel like forcing him to elaborate right now,

'Yes.'

'Yes,' he repeats and recaptures my lips.

He opens his mind.

My eyes snap open, unseeing, as I slip straight into his mind. I'm surrounded by everything that is _him_. I hesitate for only a split second before following his example.

Our minds mesh as if they were designed to.

I feel his elation at my reciprocation as though it were my own.

Then he's moving and everything is bliss.

* * *

I'm lying on my back, arms up around my head, giving an occasional shiver as my over stimulated mind settles. The Doctor is lying to my side, propped on his elbows watching me with a dopey smile on his face.

I reach out a hesitant hand and brush the edge of the smile. He looks at me adoringly then dips his head to kiss my wrist.

We've separated our minds, but the echo of the join remains. It makes it natural for me to be fixated on him.

'You've had this before,' I meant it as a question, but it comes out as a quiet statement.

His expression changes to baffled,

'Sex?'

I let out a very undignified snort of laughter,

'A mental connection during,' I correct.

'Oh,' he looks embarrassed, 'yes. I had a family.'

He looks strangely apologetic and shrugs slightly.

'I haven't,' I close my eyes to escape his expression. 'How long will it last?'

'Us?' I've lost him again.

'The… after glow,' I peak at him.

His expression switches swiftly back to adoring,

'Several hours.'

'Hmm,' I smile happily and stretch just so I can relax back boneless.

'You're gorgeous,' he tells me.

'And brilliant,' I agree.


	26. Chapter 26

Things return to our previous definition of normal.

Ok, there is one minor alteration in that I am now spending every night, or at least part of the night, in the Doctor's bed.

Oh, and the TARDIS is refusing to land anywhere with humans.

This is hilarious.

My companion doesn't think so.

'Come on, girl,' he pets the console while I snigger at him. 'It'll be fine.'

'Don't lie to the TARDIS,' I mock scold him.

'Don't encourage her!' he points an accusing finger at me.

'Come on, Dad,' Jenny laughs, 'there are plenty of other places we can go!'

Jenny took my crazed massacre surprisingly well and just made her own way back onto the TARDIS while I was busy and didn't do anything the next day other than hug her father tightly. She did also stare at the rather prominent bite mark on my neck but she's very obviously happy with the development. She hasn't brought her cat friend with us.

'I know there are,' the Doctor sighs. 'But I _like_ humans.'

He goes into a sulk at this point and disappears into the TARDIS.

'He loves you,' she beams at me and I feel myself freeze.

'No,' I shake my head, 'no, he doesn't.'

'But…' she looks confused and I'm reminded how young she actually is.

'It's ok,' I tell her quickly. 'What we have is what I wanted.'

I know he loves me, but he loves a lot of things. He doesn't feel the same about me as I do about him.

His world would not be over if I died.

* * *

Our arrangement is… peculiar. And not quite defined. I sleep in his bed and we kiss but we have gone no further since that first night nearly two weeks ago now.

Of course his truly spectacular reaction that first morning nearly meant we didn't even get to have what we have:

_Still affected by the afterglow but alone now the Doctor has fallen asleep I get up to shower and have breakfast. Jenny contacted us mentally several hours ago to assure us she was back onboard but she's sleeping too, now, so I'll be alone._

_I eat then wander to the console room. There's an angry mob outside the TARDIS but they don't seem to understand what the TARDIS is so they are not directing their anger here._

_'Hey,' I look up and smile at the Doctor as he joins me. He's fully dressed while I'm only in my sleeping trousers and I smile a little wider as his gaze travels over me._

_'Hello,' I greet him._

_'We're...' he hesitates. 'No regrets?'_

_I cross my arms over my chest to disguise my flinch. His eyes widen and he steps right up to me. I recoil a little as he touches my arm,_

_'Master,' he sounds a little desperate. 'I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean it was a one time thing if you… You liked it?'_

_I've never been so happy._

_I give a single nod without changing my facial expression or uncrossing my arms._

_He beams at me, undeterred,_

_'So, we're a thing now?'_

_I relax my posture a little,_

_'A _thing_ Doctor?'_

_'Which term would you prefer?' he turns teasing. 'We're boyfriends, a couple, lovers…?'_

_I sneer at him and he grins at me._

He returns to the console room a few hours after his sulky exit in renewed humour.

His smile does stutter into hunger when he sees that in the course of some maintenance I've stripped off my shirt.

His gaze is fixed on my collarbone where he has made it some sort of personal mission to ensure I have a permanent bruise.

I can't say that I mind.

I smirk cockily,

'You like?'

'Such a desire to mark you…' he crosses the distance between us. A gentle finger tips my head back so he can get more light on his work. The kiss he presses there is feather-light and I hum in pleasure.

His hand slips across my jaw to pet the hair at the back of my neck as he presses an equally gentle kiss to my lips,

'Hello.'

'Hello,' I smile at him.

He grins then leans his hip against the console and puts his hands in his pockets as he looks me over. It's a little more arousing than it has any right to be.

I hook my thumbs into my waistband as I lean facing him which drops my trousers an inch or so. I watch him swallow and fight to tear his eyes away.

He gives me a half-hearted glare when he manages to look up,

'Really?'

I snort at him,

'You have an excessive amount of power over me; this is only fair.'

'Oh,' he rolls his eyes in a very human gesture, 'because I've shown I can take or leave you. Not obsessed at all.'

I shrug,

'Whatever else this is, it is a competition. Everything between us is, even if we don't care who wins.'

'You'd have thought we'd have grown up by now,' he comments quietly as he gives in to temptation and runs a thumb across the freshly exposed skin.

'I win,' I murmur.

He looks up with a slight grin,

'I'm alright with that.'


	27. Chapter 27

I am sleeping better now I have the Doctor's mind resting beside me every night but I still find myself awake long before he is.

I come awake suddenly with a jolt but relax when the Doctor's arm tightens around my waist and his mind presses deeper against my own. I close my eyes in a futile attempt at returning to sleep but give it up as a lost cause.

It's always a lost cause.

Instead I slip out of the Doctor's arms and go to the console room. The TARDIS appreciates the attention.

I'm just about to sit myself down beside the console when she whirs into life.

'Hey,' I object as she takes off.

Seeing a TARDIS flying herself is faintly terrifying. I grab at the stabilisers to try and level us out. It honestly has little effect.

The Doctor bursts into the room half dressed. He isn't much help as he just catches hold of the monitor and drags it around to me so we can both see where we're going.

'Fairrol XI,' he concludes. 'What are we doing here then?'

I mutter a few choice words under my breath and walk round the console checking readings. She seems to have settled now and is giving no indication as to why we're here.

The Doctor finishes dressing and bounds down the stairs and pulls the doors open. We're in a small side street in a town of, guess what? Humans.

Joy.

The Doctor gives me a rather smug look.

There aren't many around though, and those that are in the street are moving quickly with their heads down. The Doctor steps outside and looks around; I hesitate and then join him.

'This is their third colony on this planet,' he looks at the mismatched buildings.

'What happened to the first two?' I smirk.

'Faced with all of this that's your first question?'

'Actually my first question was going to be _Why do we always end up back with humans?_, then my second question would have been _What's got them so worried?_ The question I actually asked was _way_ down the list.'

'All good questions,' he claps his hands together enthusiastically. 'Other good questions include, but are not limited to, _Have you noticed that strange metallic smell? Should we go left or right? _and _How did Jenny apparently sleep though us crash landing?_'

'Ah. And the answers to those questions?'

'An even better question!'

I walk down the street and look each way. A deep sniff makes me wrinkle my nose,

'Not just metallic. That's copper and o-zone. And… ionised carbon.'

'Show off,' he mutters then runs his finger over the wall and licks it. His expression after that is delightful, 'Been that way a while too. Hmm…'

We're standing right next to the TARDIS and all her monitoring equipment but he pulls his sonic out and starts whipping it around. He doesn't look at me so he doesn't see my doubtful expression.

'This way!' he declares, then walks in a circle.

If I was human I would face palm.

As it is I step forward and catch his elbow to direct him left.

'Ah!' he waves the sonic even more wildly.

I dig my hands into my pockets,

'Where is everyone?'

'Another very good question…' he agrees slowly.

A questioning sensation in the back of my mind makes me turn back to the TARDIS in time to see Jenny jog out to join us.

'Dad, what's going on?'

'Let's find out,' he beams at her and ushers us onwards.

We walk for several miles before we see anything useful; a large military base.

'Call it a hunch…' I leave the sentence hanging.

'The readings are definitely stronger here,' he agrees.

'You think the soldiers are doing something to their neighbours?' Jenny doesn't sound convinced. 'They don't seem far enough away for that to be a good plan.'

'They probably know what's happening,' the Doctor suggests with a grin and then strides to the guards at the gate and flashes his psychic paper, 'Hello! Weapons inspection officers!' he gestures to the three of us.

This is bound to end well.

I am honestly surprised when the guards immediately not only salute us but hand me their weapons one at a time. I look them over and then hand them back with mild praise.

They stand straighter and proud at my words.

'May we proceed to weapons storage or do we need an escort?' I ask leadingly.

'Sir!' the left guard salutes again. 'You may proceed, sir!'

'As you were,' the Doctor beams and moves past them into the compound.

Jenny and I return their salutes and follow him.

'You could try and look a little more military,' I hiss at him.

'I find behaving naturally makes me more convincing. Which way?'

We've arrived at what seems to be a parade ground. There are squads of men matching up and down and turning as one. I watch them hoping I look knowledgeable.

'Aren't they smart,' the Doctor grins.

There's that urge to face palm again…

'Come on,' Jenny interrupts and gestures to the right, 'the warehouses are over there.'

'Good place to start,' the Doctor agrees and we move on.

We inspect then move past the guards on the warehouse door, which we close behind us.

I look at the Doctor expectantly and he gestures at a computer terminal which he then promptly starts sonicing.

'According to these records…' he murmurs, 'we are surrounded by chemical weapons.'

'Maaaaagnificent…' I look around at the piles of boxes. 'Are they what caused the smell?'

'Nooo…' he shakes his head and drags a hand through his hair. 'But they were hardly going to gas themselves, were they?'

'That's what I said!' Jenny points out.

'Apes are quite stupid sometimes.'

'If we go through the warehouse we can access more of the compound. And hopefully a more helpful computer than this…' he gestures at it.

I shrug,

'Lead on.'

The door at the back is unguarded and leads to a corridor of offices which appear to all be empty. The Doctor bounds into one, with Jenny on his heels, and starts to sonic another computer.

'Are you always this subtle?' I slip in behind them.

'Ah! There!' he points to a scrolling list of names. 'These are the people who died in the attack.'

'How long ago was that?' I scowl at the date on the screen and develop a bad feeling.

I see him do the same quick calculation in his head as I did,

'Two days.'

'And the attack before that?' I take a shot in the dark.

'Oh…' he glances at me. 'There was one three days before the last, and yes, there was another three days before that and so on.'

'How wonderfully consistent,' I murmur. 'That's how the chemicals have permeated everything…'

'They're continuously topped up!' Jenny completes for me.

'So we have…' he checks his watch, somewhat strangely as who knows what time zone it's set to, '22 hours before they do it again.'

'We need to get to the enemy's base!' Jenny declares.

'We don't actually know who the bad guys are,' the Doctor points out.

'We are standing next to a warehouse full of chemical weapons,' I agree. 'Chances are those people are retaliating to what the solders are doing.'

'Or vice-versa,' Jenny objects.

'Either way,' the Doctor claps his hands, 'if we can stop them we can stop this war!'

'How? Currently our weapons list is your sonic, my laser and my hypnotic abilities.'

'More than I normally have,' he responds.

Is it actually appropriate to be smiling this much in this situation? I thought he was suppose to be the good guy?

'Come on,' he leads the way, 'it'll be fun.'

We walk straight into what appears to be the operations centre.

'Ahh… hello!' the Doctor greets the shocked faces. 'Inspection!' the psychic paper gets waved around.

They all snap to attention and the Doctor moves past them to look at the table in the middle of the room.

'You,' I point at a random soldier, 'report on current base operations.'

'Sir! Base readies for deployment tomorrow to attempt capture of enemy peninsular, sir!'

'And are you?' I demand.

'Sir?'

'Ready? Are you ready?'

'Sir! We will be sir!'

I need to keep their attention on me as the Doctor is doing something fairly suspicious with their console…

I turn to a different soldier,

'Brief me on the mission.'

'Sir! Men will deploy to the village and make their way north. The peninsular will be surrounded and the weapon will be deployed by mortar, sir!'

'Excellent,' I nod. 'What resistance is expected?'

'Sir! Heavy resistance to ground troops until weapon can be deployed. No resistance following deployment, sir!'

'Excellent!' the Doctor weaves his way back through them to return to my side. 'Well, everything seems to be in order here so we'll just be off…'

'As you were,' I instruct and join Jenny in once again returning their salutes as we leave.

'Well?' Jenny asks eagerly as soon as the door closes.

'There's a rebel cell on this peninsular they mentioned. There are hostages and this chemical weapon they've been hit with. They've held off on retaliating so far because of the hostages but the toll is too high now.'

'Sounds like the situation is resolving itself then,' I remark as we arrive back in the warehouse.

'We can't just let the hostages die!'

'Can't we?' I sigh.

He glares at me,

'You do what you like, I'm going.'

'I'll stay here and see if I can stall the soldiers,' Jenny adds.

'I'm not letting you go alone,' I scoff at him.

'Come on then,' he heads to the door.

How did this become our responsibility? I really do hate humans…


	28. Chapter 28

We walk past the guards and exit the base without speaking.

I think he's disappointed in me again, which I would be more upset about but he really does have unrealistic expectations.

I break into a transport shuttle a little way from the base and insist on driving. The Doctor navigates using a map he didn't mention pinching.

We drive for several hours with only the Doctor's instructions to break the silence before I decide to question him,

'What do the rebels want?'

'Death,' he answers promptly as if he hadn't just been giving me the cold shoulder. 'They think humans shouldn't be on this planet. They want to kill everyone else and then either kill themselves or leave.'

'No half-measures there then.'

'They believe their god lived here and that she wants her planet back.'

'Right…'

We fall back into silence again for the next hour as the sun sets. I honestly didn't know he was capable of being quiet this long; it's actually quite unnerving. The road winds though a gorge and there are no other living things in sight.

The chemical smell is decreasing as we approach the coast.

'The psychic paper probably won't get us in here,' hearing his voice again makes me jump.

'Oh?' I glance at him.

'How many people can you convince not to see us at a time?'

'If they're relatively normal humans? Probably fifteen if you don't need me for anything else.'

'Fifteen? Really?' he sounds impressed.

'Fifteen for a long term perception filter effect,' I elaborate. 'If you want to be able to talk to them then less than that. Do you have a plan?'

'Not really.'

'Do you plan to have a plan?' we finally exit the gorge.

The gorge has led us right to the sea and the cliffs run right down the coast away from us in both directions. I settle the shuttle down and turn to face the Doctor.

'Do you have a plan?' he challenges.

'You're the one with prior experience,' I quirk an eyebrow at him. 'I'd knock them out with gas and then go in.'

'Well, we can't do that.'

'We could…' I mutter and then sigh. 'It's harder to get things done if you want to be ethical.'

'Oh, because you controlling people's minds is ethical?' he scoffs.

'I've never worried about it,' I tell him truthfully.

They are only apes, for goodness sake.

'Come on,' he gets out of the shuttle, 'it's only a mile; we'll go the rest of the way on foot.'

I follow him and dig my hands into my pockets to keep them warm,

'I miss my hoodie,' I complain.

'It was your choice to revert to the suit,' he retorts. 'Are you cold?'

He falls back to walk next to me.

'We're walking along the coast road in the middle of the night, of course I'm cold,' I sneer.

'Don't exaggerate,' he scolds and wraps an arm around my shoulder to pull me against him as we walk.

'You're not miserable, are you?' he rubs my arm against the cold and looks ridiculously earnest.

I glare at him and don't say anything.

Of course I'm not miserable, you idiot, I don't say.

'You'll like it,' he promises. 'People are very grateful when you save them.'

'I still wouldn't be doing it for them,' I mutter.

'I'll be very grateful,' he adds. 'And there's the rush of winning.'

'Are you trying to talk me round to being a better person by appealing to the worst aspects of my nature?'

'Yes,' he grins.

I offer him a small smile and we keep walking.

* * *

'That's the compound,' the Doctor nods at the building we're approaching as we move further onto the peninsular. 'Do you want to start… broadcasting?'

'Sure,' I murmur and stop walking.

Some what on purpose I include the Doctor when I start mentally prompting anything nearby to be disinterested in me. It doesn't work properly but it amuses me to see him look confused and then scowl in concentration.

'Very mature,' he squints at me.

'Sorry,' I mock and drop the prompting from him.

His eyes refocus and he smiles, apparently quite automatically,

'You're very good at that.'

'Yes,' I agree and walk up to him. 'Just don't move too fast and we'll be fine.'

We get past the front gate easily and the Doctor sonics as we move. There aren't many people around at this time at night, the effort of projecting such a wide field is still draining though. The Doctor luckily knows this and pulls me aside into an empty room partway though our search.

I relax my mind as the door closes and lean against the wall. I close my eyes then jump and stare wide eyed at the Doctor who just cupped my cheek.

'Sorry,' he kisses my cheek where I flinched from him.

I sigh and step into his arms.

'You're brilliant,' he presses a kiss to my hair. 'I think I've found the prison.'

'How far?'

'We're nearly there. There will be guards. Probably quite a few. And being uninteresting might not work…'

'Is that your way of telling me to step it up?'

He beams at me,

'Yup!' he presses another kiss to my hair then my temple. 'Come on!' he takes my hand and tows me back outside.

I press up our defence as I follow him. I close my eyes; it's easier to keep track of those around us without visual distractions.

My next step doesn't touch the ground when I expect it to.

I recoil and spin to clutch my other hand to the Doctor, there's a moments pause where we manage to balance and then he falls backwards and takes me with him.

I press my face into his chest as I shake from the adrenaline. He wraps his arms tightly around me.

'Tell me if you want to walk around with your eyes shut!' he scolds, but he's shifted to curl around me. He tenses, 'are you still projecting?'

I can hear footsteps come towards us from below,

'Yes; he can't see us.'

With the blood coursing through my system it is so much easier to project. I'm buzzing and my senses are alight.

'Come on,' he pulls me up and against his chest. 'We need to move.'

I nod my head but press my nose into his neck.

The footsteps reach us and then move away.

'Down the stairs,' he tells me and steps sideways and down.

I follow him, keeping my eyes closed.

'Your trust in me is surprising,' he comments quietly as we continue.

'You're capable of many things, my Lord Doctor,' I reply equally quietly, 'but I can't believe you'd let me fall.'

'That's the last of the stairs,' he keeps me hugged to him. 'There're a large number of people in a room down the corridor around the corner. I'm hoping they're the prisoners.'

'You should ask the person approaching us,' I tell him.

Now we've stopped moving I've open my eyes and look around the dingy corridor. 'At least when I was evil I maintained a standard.'

'One of your best qualities,' he grins.

A man carrying a large gun turns the corner and walks towards us.

'They have no monitoring equipment here, do they? No cameras or anything?' I ask as the man gets closer.

'No,' the Doctor confirms, 'why?'

'Because I'm going to make sure we're in the right place…'

As the man draws level with us I catch his head and press my forehead to his as I drop my projecting in favour of invading his mind.

The Doctor makes an angry spluttering noise beside me but I ignore him.

Interesting.

The prisoners are around the corner, as suspected, but I also learn that the families of the rebels aren't far either.

That could be useful.

I instruct the man to go back to his room to sleep off his headache and then release him. He walks away rubbing his temples.

He doesn't notice I've taken his gun.

'You can't do that!' the Doctor splutters at me.

I put the strap of the gun around my shoulders and check the ammunition,

'He's fine,' I dismiss. 'Besides, the entire peninsular is going to be destroyed in a few hours.'

'That's…!' he waves his hands around as he turns in a circle and then huffs a breath, 'come on!'

I step closer to him and offer my hand. He glares at me but does grab it. I smirk at him as he tows me along behind him.


	29. Chapter 29

We move around the corner together and see four of the rebels standing together before two doors. The left is normal looking but the right is barred.

The Doctor doesn't pause and continues to tow me towards them.

I think he's irritated that I diverged from his nonexistent plan.

'Make them recognise us as fellow rebels,' he instructs and lets go of my hand.

I scramble to adjust my prompting as the men draw their guns on my companion.

'Hello there,' he beams, 'we're just here to check on the prisoners.'

They look confused for a second, their guns droop, and then false recognition lights their faces as I press harder.

'Check the prisoners, eh?' one of them mocks with a wink. 'You boys have fun!'

The Doctor blinks and looks confused,

'What…?'

I catch his elbow and tow him through the door with a wink to the guards. I feel him tense as their meaning reaches him but I've closed the door behind us now.

'They thought we…' he's looking a little pale and very angry.

'They'll be dead in a matter of hours,' I hiss at him, 'leave it!'

'But they…!'

'Yes, I know,' I tug his hand. 'Do you want to save the hostages?'

He catches my face in his hands and kisses me hard. I press my body to his and hum my approval.

'What was that for?' I ask quietly, our foreheads still pressed together.

'I love you,' he says simply, and the moves off down the corridor.

I close my eyes and suppress the shiver of pleasure at his words.

This isn't the time.

I follow him, but keep an eye on the exit in case we get company. My stolen gun is pointing down the corridor as the Doctor talks to the prisoners and starts sonicing the cage doors.

'Brief question, Doctor,' I says over my shoulder to him. 'On the way back out, what's the plan?'

'Ah… well, you'll… you can't shield this many people can you?'

'I was lead to expect five, not fifteen.'

'Right…'

I turn to look him in the eye,

'I can try?'

'You know it won't work.'

I do.

We need a hostage of our own.

The Doctor won't like it.

'Get them out of the cells,' I tell him. 'I'll get the guards from the door.'

'I good start,' he beams and starts ushering people.

I leave him talking soothingly to the now ex-hostages and go back to the door we came in through. The guards' minds fall easily under my influence and they walk, docile as anything, into cells after I've relieved them of their guns.

I don't follow them.

'Stay here,' I call to the Doctor, 'I'm going to check our escape route.'

'Right,' he looks suspicious.

I smirk and close the door behind me.

The corridors are mostly deserted and those who are around are easily dealt with.

Then things get a little more interesting.

An alarm must have been set off somewhere as I'm suddenly facing sixty armed rebels. They start firing without any additional warning so I throw myself down the corridor to my right.

'Master?!' I hear the Doctor call from somewhere behind me.

'Well done setting off the alarm!' I call back.

'Are you alright?'

'I'm fine,' I poke one of my guns around the corner and fire blind.

'I had to tell you Jenny contacted me; the soldiers are on their way,' he raises his voice over the volley of gun fire concentrated on my cover.

'Magnificent,' I mutter.

Time to go with plan B.

I follow the corridor away from the soldiers and reach out with my mind for my objective.

The soldiers I faced until I got this far were all very helpful and were all very certain on this one thing.

There, found him.

Hurry up.

I hear the Doctor calling for me when I get back to the corner,

'Master! Please…'

'I'm here,' I call back.

'Don't do that to me!'

'I had to fetch something.'

'What?'

I hesitate,

'It will make the soldiers stop shooting.'

'How?'

'They won't want to shoot it.'

'Master…' he knows he's not going to like this plan.

I turn to look when a presence arrives beside me. A human child.

The son of the base leader.

'Good luck, kid,' I mutter then catch him by the arm and push him out in to the main corridor.

One bullet flies at the sign of movement, but misses, and there's a collective gasp of horror.

'What have you done?!' the Doctor can presumably see my location.

'Let him go!' one of the soldiers demands shakily.

I pull the child back to me and loop my arm under his hold his head still as I lift him to cover my chest. I point my gun steadily with my other hand as I step out to view the soldiers.

'Weapons down!' I command, they hesitate so I tighten my grip on the child's throat, 'now!'

There's a great clatter of sound as they obey.

'Now move!' I gesture with the gun. 'Ahead of me! Out of the base. Move!'

I follow as they all keep their hands firmly on their heads and file down the corridor,

'Come on, Doctor,' I call as we arrive at the door to the courtyard.

There's a lot of noise from outside. I initially suspect an ambush is waiting for me, but then I recognise the feel of Jenny's mind.

'We were just in time,' I call over my shoulder. 'The soldiers have arrived.'

A squad bursts though the door. They're lead by one of the soldiers I quizzed in their command centre,

'Sir!' he salutes me and looks confused.

I grin at him,

'Carry on, Lieutenant.'

The soldiers rush around me and back to where the Doctor is shepherding the prisoners.

The Doctor matches up to me and snatches the child from me. He pushes him towards the door then turns back to me with a glare,

'A child?!' he waves his arms as he yells at me.

'If I hadn't done anything we'd be gassed right now!' I object.

'There are things you just can't do!' he shouts.

'No!' I snap at him. 'There are things you would prefer not to do! We are Time Lords. The Universe is ours!'

We bristle at each other.

'You can't…' he's trying to get control of his voice now; he's trying to believe he's the rational one.

'I saved our lives,' I snarl at him and cross my arms defensively.

He grabs my jacket in his hands and steps close to me,

'We are not worth more than them!'

'Yes we are!'

My words hang between us for a moment before he turns and walks away.

I follow him at a distance.

Jenny rushes to her father and they embrace. I don't hear what they say, but it doesn't take long and then he's walking again. Jenny looks confused and glances at me before falling instep with her father.

We return to the vehicle we arrived in and the Doctor gets into the back with Jenny and they wait silently. I take the hint and drive back towards the TARDIS.

He's really furious with me.

I don't understand how he thinks any of us would have survived if I hadn't disarmed the rebels and gotten them outside when I did.

What is one human child next to that?

I can't think of any way to make him understand.

Hours of silence later we stop beside the TARDIS. The Doctor wakes his daughter and they go straight inside. I sit down against the closed door and stare up at the sky.

It's barely three minutes later when the door is yanked open behind me and I drop backwards with a yelp.

The Doctor is staring at me, a little wide-eyed. He huffs a breath,

'You're still here.'

'Yes,' I grumble and avoid his gaze as I sit back up.

'Right. Good,' the door closes again.

I can relax; he forgives me.

Or he will.

I stand up and brush off my trousers. The door opens again and I eye my companion.

'Don't do that again,' he requests, quietly this time, and gazes at my feet. 'Please.'

I bite my lip,

'What should I have done?'

His eyes lift to me as his expression softens and he steps close enough to pet my hair,

'I don't know, but not that.'

The kiss he pulls me into is desperate and possessive. I press myself against him as he tugs at my hair and whine when he bites my lip.

'I'm sorry I shouted at you,' I can barely hear him when he buries his face in my shoulder.

'It's fine,' I clutch at his shirt.

'It's not,' he disagrees and presses a kiss to my neck.

He just doesn't understand.

As long as he let's me stay he can do to me whatever he feels I deserve.

Because I do deserve it.


End file.
